Current Notes 1989 04

A

$3.50

Current Notes

Vol. 9 No. 3

April 1989

In This Issue:

Latest ATARI ST and XE News

The Most Eligible ST Bachelors

Magic Spectre Tips #2

SPECIAL REPORTS:

CO° TOUCH - UP — A Must Have

Desktop Publishing Utility

Managing Your Hard Drive
Does Your Computer Have AIDS?
ST Word Processors
Small Miracles for your XE
The XL/XE Game Cart
Tips for Adventurers
Product Reviews:

Falcon
Final Assault
Flash Cards
Kings Quest IV
Prospero C Compiler
Star Raiders II
Tomahawk

03 p dBMAN, Ver. 5 — A Powerful
ST/IBM Database Management
System

THE BEST ATARI SOFT¬
WARE - 47 Mini Reviews

A File Edit Options Page Style Text Graphics Help

11I\PUBLISH\STORIES\TOUCHUP,PT5l

Touch-Up
features
Tear-away
menus

; S-

£-

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Your Monitor on the World of Atari

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Some Spellers are Better than Others.

Before she won her regional spelling bee, Margaret
Hollingsworth pored over seven different dictionaries for
more than three hundred hours.

And while we’d all like to be champion spellers, most
us just don’t have that kind of time.

So may we suggest putting the WordPerfect®

Speller in your comer.

Not only will the Speller check your document
(or any section of it) for errors and double words,
it will instantly count the words in a document,
page, or block of text.

You can look a word up phonetically to find
the correct spelling, and the Speller will
give you a list of replacement words with
similar sound patterns. Or if you’re looking for

of

\\br®rfec f

for the Atari -> T

just the right word, and you know it begins with “s” and ends
in “-ology,” use a wild-card character to replace the un¬
specified letters. The Speller will show you a comprehensive
list of your options.

With the WordPerfect Speller (included in your
WordPerfect software for the Atari), more than
115,000 words are at your fingertips. No other
speller can match that kind of power.

Not even Margaret.

WordPerfect

CORPORATION

1555 N. Technology Way • Orem, UT 84057
Tel (801) 225-5000 • Telex 820618 • FAX (801) 222-4477

WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Current Notes (ISSN 8750-1937) is pub¬
lished monthly (excluding January and
August) by Current Notes, Inc., 122 N.
Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA 22170 (703) 450-
4761. Direct subscriptions to Current Notes
are available for $24/year ($42/2 years).
Second-Class Postage paid at Sterling, VA
and other offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
Current Notes, Inc., 122 N. Johnson Rd.,
Sterling, VA 22170.

Opinions expressed in this publication are
those of the individual authors and do not
necessarily represent or reflect the opinions
of Current Notes ox any of the participating
user groups, none of which are affiliated in
any way with Atari Corp.

PUBLISHER: Joe Waters, 122 N. Johnson
Rd, Sterling, VA 22170(703)450-4761.

ST EDITOR: Frank Sommers, 4624 Lang-
drum Lane, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 (301)
656-0719.

XE EDITOR: Len Poggiali, 225 Mosley Dr,
Syracuse, NY 13206 (315)437-2456.

Articles or review material and press releases
should be sent directly to the appropriate
editor. Deadline date for articles is the 3rd of

the month.

ADVERTISING MANAGER: Joyce
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22170(703)450-4761.

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Discounts are available for multiple (2-6)
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lisher.

STORE SALES: Joyce Waters, (703) 450-
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Atari stores nationwide. If you would like to
carry Current Notes in your Atari store,
please contact us.

Back Issues: A limited number of back
issues are available:

1987: ($2.00) FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN,
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JUL, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC. (All 10 for $20)

1989: ($3.00) JAN/FEB, MAR, APR

Current Notes

Table of Contents
April 1989

CN SPECIAL REPORTS

14 Touch-Up

A Neochrome or Degas program for your IMG files,
this bug-free version from Migraph gives you loads of
useful and gee-whiz special effects.

— by Milt Creighton

22 The Best Atari Software

Current Notes authors make their picks ... Dozens of
mini-reviews ... What makes Atari great?

~ by Bill Moes and Other CN Authors

40 dBMAN

Old wine—new vintage: Version 5.0 with a new report
formatter, user-selectable command editor, user-select-
able startup procedure and a reliable compiler.

--by John Barnes

44 ProsperoC Compiler

A solid extension to the Prospero Language Family.

--by J. Andrzej Wrotniak

DEPARTMENTS

■ Atari’s Small Miracles: Rainbow(s), Graphics, by Joe Russek, 62

• The Graphic Arts: An Introduction, by Steve Marshall, 36

□ Magic Spectre Tips #2: The Printer Connection,
by Douglas Hodson, 18

□ Starting Block: Managing Your Hard Drive, by Richard A. Gunter, 30

• Stuck in a Rut: Transylvania, by Sam Wright 56

□ There and Back Again: Kings Quest IV—Affirmative Action
Advenuture, by Robert Millard, 48

■ XL/XE Game Cart: Star Raiders II, by Ron Peters, and Necromancer,
by Patrick H. Adkins, 64

WAACE CLUB CORNER, 68

REGISTERED CLUBS, 76

Page 4

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

VOLUME 9, NO. 3 — APRIL 1989

NEWS ♦ COMMENTARY PRODUCT REVIEWS

• Editorial, by Joe Waters, 6

o ST Update, by Frank Sommers, 10
A Leaner, Meaner Atari

■ XE/XL Update, by Len Poggiali, 12
7800 Game System, Let’s Hear From You,

New Products, 80-Column Word Processor

□ ST Word Processors, by Jim Wallace, 28
How to Pick the Right One for You

• Small World, by Dave Small, 34
The Most Eligible ST Bachelors

• The G Man, by David G. Grace
Does Your Computer Have A.I.D.S.?

• The Junkyard Pussycat, by John Barnes, 30
Little Tidbits to Pass on to fellow Atarians

KEY:

□ ST-related review or article.

■ XE/XL related review or article.
• Machine independent article.

ATARI DESKTOP PUBLISHING

Current Notes is produced on an Atari Mega ST4
with an Atari SLM804 Laser Printer using Time¬
works Desktop Publisher ST. Some artwork is
scanned in using the Navarone Scanner and some
ads are produced with Calamus or PageStream.

□ dBMAN —Version 5.0: Old Wine, New Vintage, by
John Barnes, 40

□ Falcon —The Game of the Year, Blazing Guns and
Graphics, by Roger Abram, 38

□ Final Assault —If you have any interest in mountain
climbing, this game is for you, by Don Elmore, 66

□ Flash Cards —A clean program offering help in a
most important learning area, by Bill Moes, 43

□ Kings Quest IV—Affirmative Action Adventure, by
Robert Millard, 48

■ Neocromancer —A fast arcade style fantasy
game, by Patrick H. Adkins, 64

□ Prospero C Compiler —Solid extension to the
Prospero Language family, J. Andrzej Wrotniak, 44

■ Star Raiders II—If you thought the original was a
classic, wait till you try this one, by Ron Peters, 64

■ Tomahawk —Fly the US Army Apache, the world’s
most menacing Hunter Killer helicopter, by C.H.E.
Firewick, 58

□ Touch-Up —Migraph’s New Drawing Tool, by Milt
Creighton, 14

TIME TO RENEW????

Check your mailing label. If you see an 8904 (4th
month of 1989, i.e. April!) on the first line, then this is
your last issue of CN. Get your renewal in right
away to be sure you do not miss any issues. (If you
see an 8905 or 8906, your subscription will soon be
ending. Please try and renew early—it is a big help to
us.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 5

In the course of duties in my non-Atari job, I often
have to travel to conferences or visit various com¬
panies or government agencies. As you might expect,
management would like to see some kind of trip report
when I return to work. However, the fact is, after being
gone for awhile, things pile up on my desk and it is
difficult to find the time to compose these reports.
Often, they simply don’t get done.

Just prior to my going on yet another trip, this time
to visit some high-tech firms in California, I received in
my Current Notes mailbox a “letter to the editor” that
the author said he was composing on his laptop PC
while he flew back from California. It wasn’t a big,
expensive or fancy laptop, but, as the author noted in
his letter, it did get the job done. That gave me an
idea. Why not get a small, inexpensive laptop for my
trips and use some of the normally ample time avail¬
able in hotel rooms to compose those reports I don’t
have time for when I get back in the office? I men¬
tioned the idea to my boss, it was approved, and, after
doing some instant research that evening, I went off
and purchased a Tandy 1400LS (PC clone, two 3.5"
drives, 740K, backlit screen, 13.5 pounds) on sale for
$1,300. Not a bargain by ST standards, but Atari didn’t
have a laptop yet and I needed something other
people in the office could use as well.

During my trip, I wrote up a report every evening. I
even had some extra time in the airport on Friday night
and was able to pull out my laptop and finish writing
about Friday’s activities before I got on the “red-eye”
to return to Virginia.

I wanted to have my report ready when I walked in
Monday morning. So, that weekend, I saved my word
processing file in a straight ASCII format, took the PC
disk from my Tandy, popped it into my Mega, and tried
reading the report into WordPerfect. It worked like a
charm! Used WordPerfect to check out the spelling,
and then flowed the text into Publisher 57"where I
formatted it for double columns and put in some fancy
titles and subheads. Since I happened to have this
nifty Atari laser printer attached to my Mega, I used it
to produce a nice-looking “desk-top” published
report. That’s what I delivered when I walked into the
office Monday morning. Needless to say, the report
had the desired impact. Management figured (jokingly)
that the laptop had already paid for itself.

I tell this story for two reasons. One is that Atari will
shortly have a laptop and Atari owners who want to
take advantage of a computer when they travel will be
able to take along something they are comfortable
with. The other reason is to highlight the fact that I was
able to easily integrate my PC output with my ST and
this is, perhaps, the more important point.

In this issue, John Barnes gives us a look at the
latest version of dBMAN. This is a dBASE clone. It is
available, of course, on the ST, but it is also available
on the IBM PC. I ordered the IBM version so I could
have a database program at work that was exactly the
same as the database program I use at home on my
Atari. Programs written on my Atari can then be read
and used with dBMAN on the IBM and vice-versa. I
loaded the IBM version on my PS/2 at work and tried
accessing a dBASE database I had. Worked perfectly.
So, with dBMAN\ can access and use databases and
programs written on the PC for dBMAN ox dBASBas
well as use the very same programs on my Atari.

Consider another case in point. In his review of
Prospero C, Andrzej Wrotniak discusses an added
bonus for Prospero programmers. Prospero languages
(FORTRAN, Pascal, C) are available for the Atari and
for the IBM PC. If you write a program on the Atari, all
you need to do is recompile that program on the IBM
PC and you have an application that runs on both
machines. Prospero even takes this connectivity a step
further by letting any of their languages call subrou¬
tines written in any one of their other languages.

One of the high-tech firms I visited has an operat¬
ing system that runs on several different hardware
platforms such as the Motorola 68030 and the Intel
80386. Programs written on one machine can be
ported over to the other by simply transferring the
source code and recompiling the application.

This is clearly the trend of the future. Application
programmers will be able to develop software that,
with very little effort on their part, can be ported over
to a number of different hardware platforms. The
market open to the programmer expands dramatically
as does the amount of software available to computer
owners.

As Atari owners, we already have a taste of this
diversity. The Atari ST line already has its own graphi¬
cal interface and machine-dependent software. But,
the ST/Mega series can also run Macintosh programs
using the Magic Sac or Spectre emulators or IBM PC
programs using pc-ditto (and, soon, pc-ditto II).

Using other emulators, Atari owners can even run
CP/M programs or Atari XE/XL Basic programs. No
other computer provides its owners with this diversity.

The above emulation is supported by the Motorola
68000 chip. Imagine what life will be like when the next
generation Atari comes out based on a Motorola 68030
chip. Although plans now call for the first release to run
TOS/GEM, I expect eventually to see a Unix operating
system (matching one of the two leading variants on
the market and masked from the user by a graphical
interface) that allows us to run Atari GEM software,

IBM PC software, or Macintosh software—all in one
machine. Then, as well as now, this flexibility is a
terrific selling point, Atari. Go for it!

— Joe Waters

Page 6

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

April, 1989

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When the Atari ST first came
out, many of us thought that the
Atari would become the best-selling
personal computer. Just as the
Commodore C64 when it first came
out, the Atari ST represented state
of the art technology at a cost that
everybody could afford. Program¬
mers naturally gravitated towards
the ST because of its low cost and
high performance. But the Atari ST
has suffered from both a lack of
software and poor market position¬
ing. Its fate has been much the
same as that of the Atari 400/800
(which was light-years ahead of the
C64 in many ways): a great machine
with little or no support. Those who
bought Atari STs were quickly
forced to band together through
networks and user groups.

Talking to Atari users, we
learned many wanted to see our
best-selling air combat simulator,
FALCON, converted to the Atari ST.
They also wanted us to take full
advantage of the machine’s capabi¬
lity, rather than doing just a simple
conversion job from the Macintosh
or IBM in the way that many other
titles have been converted.

Many of our competitors warned
us that releasing an ST product
would be a money loser. We were
told that within weeks the product
would be up on the bulletin boards
and sales would fall to zero. We
chose to disregard these comments
and felt that a majority of Atari ST
users really wanted new products
and that the piracy problem only
existed with a small handful of
users. Many of us did not even want
to put copy protection on the pro¬
duct because we feel that copy
protection is inconvenient and a
nuisance for the honest user. Copy
protection is also expensive, adding

about $0.50 per
copy to our cost
of production.

H owever,
within thirty days
of releasing FAL¬
CON ST, pirates
had put the
product up on the bulletin boards-
-complete with diagrams for the
code wheel protection, keyboard
layout and mission maps of the
product.

***The real cost of such
software piracy is not the lost
$49.95j sale, but rather the lost
industry support for Atari ST.***

Whether the machine format is
an IBM, Amiga, C64, Apple II or
Macintosh, piracy will always exist.
A good software company accepts
this fact and hopes that there are
enough users out there who do not
pirate to cover the cost of develop¬
ing and publishing a product and
allow for a reasonable profit.

Many ST owners argue that the
ST has no more pirates than IBM or
Mac. Many of us at Spectrum Holo-
Byte believe this to be true. The
problem is that the number of in¬
stalled ST’s is considerably smaller
than that of the IBM or Macintosh,
thus increasing the impact of piracy
on sales. In addition, ST pirates
seem better organized and piracy
seems more accepted (or, should I
say, tolerated) by ST users.

The cost of developing a prod¬
uct is quite high, especially on a
complex machine like the ST. FAL¬
CON'St was converted and enhan¬
ced by a third party developer. A
third party developer lives by the
royalties earned on each product
sold. Typically, a third party com¬
pany receives around $2 in royalties
for each copy sold. Rowan Soft¬
ware, the company that converted
FALCON, spent over $40,000, and
24 man-months on the Atari ST
version.

The Amiga version already has
double the sales volume of the ST,
even though Amiga FALCON has
been on the market for only 6 weeks
while ST FALCON has been

released for 9 weeks. When Macin¬
tosh and IBM versions were
released, they sold four times the
volume of product over the same
period of time. Based on the current
sales trend, the ST developer will be
lucky to break even. A good-selling
Amiga or Macintosh product will sell
20,000-40,000 copies in its first
year. An IBM title will sell 40,000-
100,000 copies, yet a top ST pro¬
duct would be lucky to sell more
than 15,000. It will be very difficult to
convince this development com¬
pany to do another ST conversion
when it could make triple the dollars
programming in Amiga, IBM, or
Macintosh product.

For publishers, it’s also very
costly to produce and market
games. When development, mar¬
keting, advertising and production
are included, it costs anywhere bet¬
ween $250,000 and $500,000 to
introduce a new product. After
retailers and distributors take their
share of the purchase price, the
publisher receives in the range of
$12 to $20 per each copy sold to
cover its cost and profits. In addi¬
tion, publishers must support their
products with new updates and offer
telephone and network support for
users.

There is no clear-cut solution to
the problem of piracy. All we can
ask is that if you like a program, buy
it. Think of it as an investment. The
more invested, the more and better
titles you’ll see for the ST. Help us
send a message to the rest of the
industry that there really is an ST
market willing to buy good software.
Spectrum HoloByte will continue to
monitor the ST market and keep a
close eye on what happens with
FALCON ST. It’s a shame that a few
users can hurt a market as badly as
the ST pirates can and deprive
thousands of good ST users of the
product support that other machines
receive.

Sincerely,

Gilman G. Louie,

CEO/Chairman

SPHERE, INC..

Spectrum HoloByte

Page 8

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

Give your desktop graphics that professional touch.

Introducing

Migraph

Thuc

h-Up.

mh.

IlM.

Ws o
// 8

1 II

„ LL

P

1 o o o o

cr±. TOUCH-UF

/amz

f IXCU

— ftxecs

► J t r —

s.

Migraph Touch-Up is the complete
design tool for high-resolution
monochrome images.

Create, edit, enhance-you can do it
all with Touch-Up.

And do it better, because Touch-Up
is the first “virtual page” graphics
program for the Atari ST:" A sizeable
advantage indeed!

Touch-Up can handle bit-mapped

images of any size and resolution
(based on available memory in your
computer). Which means you can now
produce pixel-perfect images for all
your publishing projects.

Migraph Touch-Up. A powerful tool for
professional-quality results.

Ask your dealer for a demonstration of
Touch-Up, or call Migraph’s toll-free
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Copyright 1989 Migraph, Inc. The Migraph logo is a registered trademark and Touch-Up is a trademark ot Migraph, Inc.

llftjppAiii

-fc

Frank 'Somw^'

A LEANER MEANER ATARI ?

Is the Hand Quicker Than the
Eye?

“A spin off, a sale, a leveraged
buyout or...” These were the words
that appeared in Atari’s press
release and also in the 9 March
“New York Times.” Which shell
housed the pea? What was it all
about? The Federated Group, the
chain of electronics stores, that Jack
Tramiel had acquired a year plus
ago to help turn Atari into a mega¬
sales electronic empire, was no
longer an Atari wholly owned sub¬
sidiary. No, it is to be called, “A
Discontinued Operation.”

What does that mean? Well, for
one thing, it means Atari can
announce a profit picture for 1989
that no longer has Federated so far
into Atari’s wallet pocket that it’s
coming out its collar, i.e. per press
release, “Net income for the year,
before extraordinary items and dis¬
continued operations was $39.4
million...For the quarter, net income
before extraordinary items and dis¬
continued operations was $9.3 mil¬
lion...” That would seem to be down
only $12 million or so for the last
quarter before discontinued
operations are put into the arith¬
metic. By our electronic pencil that
suggests that Federated lost more
than $11 million for Atari in the last
quarter alone, if you give any cre¬
dence to the rumors that Atari had a
net profit of less than $100 thousand
for the last quarter when everything
was subtracted.

But real numbers are always
hard to come by. Bookkeeping has
become an art that even the great
Italian masters would have admired.
This you learn when you try to tie
down the U.S. budget deficit where
the swing is $100 billion depending
on with whom you talk.

However they plan to vaporize
Federated, Atari management is to

be congratulated on swallowing a
bitter pill and making the agonizing
admission that Federated had been
a bad move and then the equally
hard decision to pull the plug before
Federated pulled Atari down the
drain along with it.

If Atari can get out from under
without taking a “$100 million write
off” bath (because that would be
talking “real money”), they might
just be in position to start their
“Spurt For The 90’s”, and double
U.S. sales this year and have seri¬
ous money for national advertising
next year. If that happened, then
along with it would come more rea¬
sonable expectations that Atari
might carve out a place for itself in
the U.S. computer market. A spot
similar to, if not as large as, that
which it enjoys in the European
market, where the ST’s and Mega’s
are viewed as “serious machine,”
with major attention paid them at
such expositions as last month’s
Hannover Trade Fair.

Fair Blows The Wind

As if the decision to exorcise
the Federated Devil was not enough
good news, Consumer Reports of
March announced that the ST was
rated as their top choice. As a home
computer it beat all others in price
and performance, according to CR!

On the heels of that, into town
blew Atari’s Marketing Man, Mike
Dindo and cohort. While they may
have been surprised to find the
Nation’s Capitol and Metropolitan
area was down to three Atari distri¬
butors, the dealers were even more
surprised and delighted to spend
time with real live Atari reps. Part of
the good news was a pledge for an
$80,000 ad campaign in the Wash¬
ington Post. The other portion was
the “outstanding” laser printer pro¬
motion we cited last month. That is
an SLM 804 laser printer without the

PostScript emulator, U/traScript, for
$1295, a full $700 off list. That’s a
bigger “rebate” than you get from
most sales-hungry auto dealers on
a $15,000 car! And. If you want your
laser printer to act like “the big
boys” for $200 more you get the
SLM 804 PSC(PostScript compat¬
ible). Not bad when you consider
that the emulator normally sells for
$230. So if you have a Mega and
are “going laser” in the near future,
you may wish to consider this pro¬
motion.

And How is UltraScript?

Well, there is considerable con¬
fusion among those of us who
haven’t had an opportunity to use
and review it (Imagen has a curious
marketing policy of not issuing
copies for magazine reviews with
the exception of START), and the
confusion revolves around how it
works. Last month’s readers will
remember we speculated that it
would be software and independent
of the laser so previous owners
could upgrade to it. But how does it
function? Well, if your application
has a PS capability, as Publisher ST
does, then you put the UltraScript
driver into the folder or directory
with Publisher ST. (currently, it also
works with F/eetStreet Publisher,
and PageStream, which has its own
PS driver.) After preparing your DTP
page, you save it to disk. It will then
have a .PS extender, put on by the
driver. Next, exit Publisher ST, load
UltraScript and when it asks for a
file, specify your DTP page, which
will have been saved in the Pub¬
lisher folder as Publisher.PS. Bingo,
it will be sent to the laser printer.

How fast is it? How good is the
quality of the output? How many
fonts are there? What is the cost?
Slow down. One at a time.

Speed—it is just about half as
fast as straight Publisher ST. If your

Page 10

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

page takes 45 seconds to load into
memory and route to the printer in
Publisher, then you can expect
about two minutes with UltraScript.
But that is about twice as fast or
more if you use a NEC laser printer
or a Macintosh LaserWriter Plus. So
far, so good.

Quality — Fortunately, the first
copy of UltraScript that Imagen sold,
was sold to CN author, Milt
Creighton. When asked about the
quality, he made the droll comment,
“It looks just like Publisher ST, but
without the jaggies!” Graphics?
Sharp, dark and clear. Purportedly
Calamus has lost its edge, because
the output from Publisher ST with
UltraScript is fully equal to anything
that Calamus can produce. So far,
even better.

Cost — High end for the ST. At
$230 only a few products outrank it
in cost. But the even sadder aspect,
is that for that price you only get in
effect two font families; one, Y.ucida,
has six different faces, plus Hebrew
and typewriter Hebrew, and sym¬
bols, along with one face for
Courier. So is this real PostScript.
The answer is no. Not until you buy
the font package with seven font
families equaling 32 Adobe type
faces for another $295 (or as
individual disks, with one family per
disk for $100 each). Thus, in effect,
UltraScript is a pricey $525 which
makes it the most expensive emula¬
tion/utility for the ST out there.

What’s Coming And What’s
Not

Reportedly, Atari is preparing to
release its own “multi-sync” moni¬
tor or at least a combination color
and black and white monitor that
with the flick of a knob will switch
from one to the other. This is to be
part of the array of hardware good¬
ies they talk about bringing to mar¬
ket in 1989.

That speedy TOS 1.4, that loads
PageStream in 1/3 the time the old
TOS takes is not quite ready yet. A
bug here, a bug there, that screws
up the FAT table. But soon.

Similarly, with the mighty 68030

machine. Atari has less than one of
them, i.e. currently they are not able
to get programs to run with regu¬
larity on their prototype. This may be
the reason for rumors that Atari will
“wait” to introduce the “30” and
instead come out first with the
68020.

But now, for us “hard drivers”.
What about a backup drive for our
HD that uses either 20meg or
40meg cartridges to put your
backup material on. Just pop it in
when you need it. If it’s fast enough
you might even use it as a drive.
Cost? A remarkable $250. Cross
your fingers.

For the music lovers among us
a new family of music keyboards,
designed by the Fleetwood Mac’s.
Prices will range from $16,000
down.

In the update world, ISD of
Canada is out with V. 1.09 of Cala¬
mus, which will permit importation of
WordPerfect files. They will also be
releasing 31 compugraphic font
families for Ca/amus containing a
total of 79 type faces, but at $200 a
disk for a portion of the group, it
won’t be cheap. But then neither will
the ultimate upgrade of DynaCad.
There will be a normal update to
version 1.5 in June but prior to that
May will see a more powerful ver¬
sion of the program, DynaCad V. 2.0
that will bring the program square
up against Auto Cad. It will be high
end indeed at a price of $1995.

Word Perfect Corp. has asked
CN to announce that the new
upgrade of WP for the ST will not be
available as we announced last
month by calling Ms. Robinson
directly. Instead, warranteed owners
must contact Customer Service on
the toll free number contained in
their manuals, where they can verify
your registration number and issue
you the update. When to call? Not
before 15 April. WP Corp. had
hoped to have it out last month, but
ran into difficulties.

For those who play the stock
market there’s Stalk the Market.
Billed as the ultimate in stock mar¬
ket programs, Quidnunc Software of

Dallas, Texas has done it all, seem¬
ingly. There are provisions for real¬
time manipulations, storage of daily
composite prices, or weekly or
monthly as you choose, automated
optimization of cash flow, plus gra¬
phic representations, cyclic analysis
and buy and sell indicators and
simulations. Need more. Check it
out; it may also be there. (Quid¬
nunc, P.O. Box 819081, Dallas, TX,
214-243-0663)

Mac Miscellaneous

The National Space Agency is
scrapping their IBM PC’s and mov¬
ing to MAC ll’s with hard drives.

As everyone knows (I didn’t) the
new Mac’s have “memory manage¬
ment” circuitry and thus can run
several programs at a time. That is
about the only significant thing the
Mac can now do that the ST and
Mega’s can’t. “What’s the Mac that
can do that?” you might ask. It’s the
Mac Ilex, announced last month, as
well as the Mac llx and the SE/30.
For those of you who like to count,
that’s the sixth new Mac version
since the Mac first hit the market
(Mac Plus, Mac SE, Mac II, Mac
SE/30, Mac llx and now the Mac
llxc); we have had one since the ST,
the Mega in two memory configu¬
rations. But what about the price?
Well, fully configured with an 80
meg hard drive, 4 meg of memory,
and a color monitor it’s a whopping
$9,000. And a Mega similarly con¬
figured is £3000, if you use a hard
drive kit. A bit steep for so called
multi-tasking, you might suggest.

Hat’s Off Award

For the first time it goes to a CN
author. To Bill Moes in Defiance,
Ohio for creativity, perseverance
and execution, in bringing us a new
program review format, the 25-word
mini review. Read Bill’s piece on
“The Best of Atari” and you’ll sense
what I mean. In a few words you
discover quite a bit of the essence
of each of the programs. And a tip
of the hat to all of the 16 contribut¬
ing CN authors.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 11

XE/XL UPDATE ♦ Len Poggiali

7800 Game System

Although the 7800 has been kicking around for
some time now, it has received little, if any, press from
Current Notes. Lately, we have made a decision to pay
some attention to this machine and its software. Many
Atari 8-bit owners also have an Atari 2600 in their home.
They even may be considering shelving the old Atari
system for a Nintendo or Sega game machine. If our
coverage helps steer them toward a 7800, all the better.
If it convinces them that one of the non-Atari products
is superior, then that is also fine. After all, CN does not
subscribe to an Atari-for-Atari’s-sake type of philoso¬
phy.

A second reason for our interest in this system has
to do with the software support it is beginning to
receive. As reported in the March issue, Atari is releas¬
ing or has released ten new games for the 7800. These
include Tower Topp/er, Impossible Mission, and Cross¬
bow. In addition, some third-party companies have
begun supporting the machine. Also, there are a num¬
ber of games available already for the 7800 that are not
issued for the 8-bits (e.g., Winter Games).

For these reasons, we have decided to give limited
coverage to the 7800 and its software. A 7800 column
will be included in the May (and perhaps the June)
issue. This column may be the shortest running game in
town, however. Unless our readers mail in reviews, or
Atari loosens its grip on some of its precious cartridges,
there will be no July coverage.

Atari, earlier on, cooperated by providing CN with a
machine and two or three carts. However, despite
repeated conversations with the company and its public
relations firm, Smith Marketing, Inc., we have received
no new software. No new XE carts have been forth¬
coming either. This shortage is even more critical. The
two covered in this issue are the last of the lot.

If this situation is not resolved, we will have to
withdraw our support for both sets of carts. If you have
any influence with Atari, please contact them about this.
After all, it is in their best interest to have their products
reviewed in a national publication. Even a so-so notice
is better than no notice at all.

Let’s Hear From You

In the February issue, I asked readers to mail me
their choices for software they would like to see
available for the Atari 8-bits. To-date I have received
two replies. The first respondent is an arcade game
aficionado. He would like to see EPYX’s California
Games, Data East’s Speed Buggy and Sega’s Out Run
converted. The second gentleman is interested in pro¬
ductivity software, including Electronic Arts’ Paperclip-
Publisher and Timeworks’ Word Writer, Swiftca/c, Data

Manager, and Partner. He also is concerned that EA has
discontinued the Atari version of Paperclip.

If any of those strike your fancy, or you have
selections of your own, please write and let me know.
Unfortunately, two letters and a willing editor do not a
write-in campaign make.

Can You Help?

A number of weeks ago I received a letter from U.S.
Army Staff Sergeant James Kushima. He is having
difficulty setting up his Star Micronics (NX-10) printer
with his 130XE. In Athens, Greece, where he is
stationed, there is no Atari dealer.

“I mail ordered my printer and have gotten no
support from the dealer,” he states. “I also ordered a
printer cable from ICD, but I think I need specific switch
settings for the printer to function properly. The manual
covers everything but an 8-bit Atari. Can you help?”

That is as specific as he gets. I called ICD, but they
could not offer advice without better information.
Although I tried many times, I could not reach the printer
manufacturer. I am certain that many of our readers own
this very popular printer. Perhaps some of you might be
able to offer some advice to Sgt. Kushima. He may be
reached by writing SSgt. James Kushima, PSC Box 702,
APO NY 09223. Thanks, ahead of time, for your help.

New Products

Recently, a product called Turbo-816 has been
previewed in a number of publications. This is a 16-bit
central processor system for the Atari 8-bits which,
when installed, would replace the original 8-bit proces¬
sor. According to reports, the product is compatible with
most 8-bit hardware and software. Turbo-816 will be
sold as a kit for $159.95 from DataQue, Dept. T816-C,
P.O. Box 134, Ontario, OH 44862. A number of hard¬
ware devices are planned for the future if sales for
Turbo-81 6 encouraging.

Innovative Concepts has introduced a real-time
clock— R-Time 8 —in a plug-in cartridge. At $59.95,
this product keeps the time and the date. Spartados X,
Spartados Construction Set and a number of other DOS
types are supported, as well as Atari Basic, Basic XL/XE,
Action!, and MAC/65. P-Time-8 may be ordered from
Innovative Concepts, 31172 Shawn Drive, Warren, Ml
48093, (313) 293-0730. Add $3.50 for shipping and
handling.

Keith Ledbetter, author of the Express! communica¬
tion programs, has written the new Express!, to be
released on cartridge in June. Written in 100% assembly
language and including 64K of banked memory, this
product includes features not available in other Atari
8-bit terminal programs. The cartridge will workwith

Page 12

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

most modems, including the 1030, the XM-301, and the
new SX212, as well as the XEP80 80-column adaptor.
Most DOS’s are supported, as is the extra memory of
the 130 XE or 800 XL upgrades. The program employs
drop-down menus and supports features such as
search/replace, cut and paste, macros, a variety of
protocols, and a full-screen text editor. When available
from Orion Micro Systems, 2211 Planters Row Drive,
Midlothian, Virginia 23113, it will retail for $69.95. Per¬
sons ordering before June 1 will receive a $10.00
discount. Shipping and handling is $4.00; Virginia resi¬
dents should include 4.5% sales tax.

80 -Column Word Processor

Micromiser Software, the company which produced
the Turbobase program, has released an 80-column
word processor— Turboword. To run Turboword, one
must have the Atari XEP80 80-column adaptor and a
monochrome or color monitor. The program (not copy
protected) will work on any 48K Atari 8-bit.

The double-sided disk contains the word processor
on one side and a spell checker on the other. There
also are mail merge and macro features offered. In
addition, Turboword supports many DOS’s and RAMdisk
arrangements.

The program is menu driven, although CONTROL
KEY commands also may be employed. Many tradi¬
tional options are available, but Search and Replace is
not one of them. I also read somewhere that double¬
spaced printing was impossible. You might want to
check on this before buying the program.

Fortunately, Micromiser appears to be very suppor¬
tive. Already the company has produced an update and
is sending a copy (free of charge) to anyone who has
purchased Microword. Also, the word processor will be
compatible with the company’s 80-column versions of
Turbobase and TurbofHe (a simpler database).

Information from a variety of sources suggests that
Microword is not the perfect program. Nevertheless,
until something better comes along (and considering
Micromiser’s user support), XEP80 owners might con¬
sider checking Turboword out. At $49 it does not sound
like a bad buy.

If an XEP80 owner would like to review Microword
(and its companion products), please get in touch with
me. We have no idea how many XEP80 owners there
are out there. This might help gather some support for
the product and its users. Micromiser Software, 1635-A
Holden Avenue, Orlando, FL 32809, (407) 857-6014.

Plan now to attend the

WORLD OF ATARI

APRIL 22 -23, 1989

DISNEYLAND HOTEL
ANAHEIM , CALIFORNIA

ADMISSION

$5.00 - 1 day
$7.00 - 2 day

Children under 11 accompanied by adult FREE!

Contact your user group lor advance

Discount tickets to Universal Studios,
Knotts Berry Farm, Disneyland, Spruce
Goose, Queen Mary and FREE TV show
tickets also availableFor additional infor¬
mation, call (503) 673-2259

Fly American Airlines

40% disount off coach fares or
5% off the lowest available RT fare.

Stay at the Disneyland Hotel
Discounted to $90.00 per night
1-2-3-4 to a room or family plan,
plus FREE tickets to show.

Rent National

Daily and weekly car rental discount on
all makes, models and sizes.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 13

ATARI ST/MEGA CN REVIEW

TOUCH-UP

8 llToolsI

e^L

p

\£.

®

111

§rQ' } Migraph’s New Drawing Tool

u

□

T|

cJS Review by Milt Creighton

(a

m\

A Useful Product

Touch-Up by Migraph is a vir¬
tual page editing and creation pro¬
gram for bit-mapped, high-resolu-
tion monochrome images. Now
some of you may know what that
means, but I intend to write this
review for those who don’t. You
see, Migraph has a habit of pro¬
ducing very useful products that
don’t fit into any single neat cate¬
gory. Supercharger is a case in
point. Touch-Up is another. One
way to describe Touch-Up is
Neochrome or Degas for IMG files,
but there is actually quite a lot more
to it than that. You can work on
images larger than the size of your
screen and actually set the resolu¬
tion of the output to match that of
your output device, such as a
printer. Naturally, you don’t get
something for nothing, so there are
limitations I will get to later. Touch-
Up also imports and exports a wide
variety of graphic formats. It in¬
cludes the ability to put text labels
on your images using scalable out¬
line fonts, and it has lots of useful
and gee-whiz special effects. On
top of all that, the current version
appears to be bug-free, which is a
remarkable accomplishment for a
new release. Later revisions will
include the ability to directly affect
the output from scanners (brand
names unidentified as yet).

The World of Touch-Up

Let’s begin by describing what
Touch-Up encompasses. First of
all, Touch-Up only works on mono¬
chrome images—and bit-mapped
images at that. Yes, you can import
color images, but Touch-Up will
convert them (the operation is
called mapping) to monochrome
images before permitting you to

edit them. In addition, Touch-Up
does not work directly on GEM
images like those produced by
Easy Draw. GEM images are vector
graphics which are made up of
lines. Bit images are made up of
dots. You can expand (or shrink)
vector graphic images (within
limits) without loss of resolution.
Expanding bit-mapped images
leads to loss of image quality
through the introduction of blocky,
stair-step lines (called jaggies).
Shrinking the image leads to loss of
image quality through loss of image
data. Touch-Up edits or creates
only bit-mapped IMG graphics
files, though they can be converted
and exported in other graphic for¬
mats.

The Dreaded GDOS
Monster

Touch-Up is GDOS-based. Ah
yes, the dreaded GDOS monster
rears its ugly head once again.
However, Migraph has tamed the
beast more than a little with a clear
description of how to install the
program on every conceivable type
of system. There is still some con¬
fusion possible, but you have to
work at it a bit harder than with
most GDOS-based programs.
Touch-Up employs its own GDOS
screen driver and uses none of the
other GDOS screen or printer fonts
listed in its own ASSIGN.SYS file.
There are a number of printer
drivers listed in the Touch-Up
ASSIGN.SYS file including the
Epson FX-80 and LQ-800, the
Hewlett Packard Laser Jet (both
150 and 300 dpi) and the Atari
SLM804 laser printer, but the GEM-
SYS folder only contains the FX-80
and LQ800 drivers, so unless you
intend to use either of those two

printers, you’ll have to supply your
own driver and put it in the GEM-
SYS folder. If you intend to use a
printer other than one of those
listed, you’ll have to edit the
ASSIGN.SYS file as well. That
brings up the question of system
requirements. You can use either a
color (low resolution is recommen¬
ded because the pixels are square)
or monochrome monitor, but you
must have a least one double¬
sided disk drive and at least 1
megabyte of system memory.

Environmental Impact
Statement

The 225-page manual for
Touch-Up is clear and well-written.
It includes some very nice tutorials
along the way that illustrate the
program’s features, as well as
glossary and reference sections
that are quite complete for the most
part. In fact, portions of the manual
are duplicated (with a few minor
differences to account for different
modes of operation) from one sec¬
tion to the next. There is a very
good reason for doing this as we
shall see, but it serves to make the
actual reading matter look more
daunting than it really is. The only
complaint I have is that there is no
index! I generally rely heavily on an
index after the first reading of a
manual and I found the lack of one
here to be a drawback. The only
reason the absence wasn’t a crip¬
pling deficiency is because it is
partially offset by a very complete
and detailed Table of Contents that
has most of the functionality of an
index.

Touch-Up is copy protected. I
know, I don’t like it either, but
Migraph has taken pains to reduce
the impact. The copy-protection is

Page 14

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

in the form of a Program Security
Key (PSK), commonly called a
dongle by hackers. It is a device
about an inch long that plugs into
your parallel printer port (providing
pass-through for the printer cable).
The program software checks for
the presence of the PSK periodi¬
cally. The disks themselves are not
copy-protected, so you can copy
Touch-Up to your hard drive or
make a back-up of the floppies. By
the way, the PSK contains a lithium
battery, so it is an active device.
There is no way to the
replace the battery either.

Don’t be concerned about
this feature, however, as the
battery has a life of eight
years if the computer is not
in use. When your system is
in use, the PSK draws
power from the computer
through the printer port. I
don’t want to get into the
merits of copy protection in
this review. Suffice it to say
that the PSK is unobtrusive.

The one real reservation I
have is that it may be possible to
damage your system through care¬
less installation. Make certain the
power to your system is off
before installing the PSK. Also,
keep in mind the fact that the PSK
protrudes an inch from your printer
port. If you add a parallel printer
cable the total protrusion is better
than two inches. Be very careful
about pushing your epu back
against a wall or you can crack the
printer port and very possibly
damage your computer.

Importing Images

Now that we’ve cleared away
the environmental aspects, what
about the program itself? With
Touch-Up you can create high
resolution monochrome images
using the drawing modes or you
can import color or monochrome
images and edit them. You can
load Degas , Degas Elite, IMG, Mac¬

Paint, Neochrome, PCX and TIFF.
There is also a separate conversion
program included on the Touch-Up
Master Disk (after serial #650)
which permits the conversion of
PrintMaster and LabeiMaster clip
art libraries to and from IMG format
for loading into Touch-Up where
they can be edited. Before you
import an image or create a new
one, you should consider the reso¬
lution of your output device. Map¬
ping a color image with one of the
more complex techniques available

may exceed the resolution of your
printer. Even if you have a laser
printer with 300 dpi capability, it is
possible to produce an image that
exceeds your system RAM.

There are a number of tech¬
niques for mapping of color im¬
ages. You can map to black all,
most, or some of the colors. You
can employ Floyd-Steinberg (F-S)
or Burke algorithms for imitation of
colors in monochrome images.
Migraph has not ignored the auto¬
mapping techniques of Superchar¬
ger either. There are auto- and
table-mapping choices in 2x2 and
4x4 matrices and your choice of
two different kinds of dithering
techniques. Naturally, you have to
keep in mind the effect on the
image of creating a 4x4 matrix for
each pixel of the original. The
image size will expand accordingly.
For example, a low-rez 320 x 200
full-screen color image will map to
1280 x 800 if you employ 4x4
mapping. The resultant image will

consume up to 250K of system
memory, though it is compressed
before saving to disk.

Touch-Up Overview

Touch-Up has a number of
modes of operation. It includes two
drawing modes: the one entitled
Drawing Mode is the more powerful
of the two while the other (Lightning
Mode) is faster and more like a
standard paint program. Clip mode
allows you to use most of the
drawing commands and employ
additional special effects on
a portion of an image, Text
mode is for placing text
labels on graphics, and File
Mode is the method by
which you import and
export graphics to and from
the program and go to the
printing module. Yes,
Touch-Up has an OUT-
PRINT module just like Easy
Draw and it works the same
way. There is a way to print
from within Touch-Up but I
have not been able to make
it work. I am certain it has some¬
thing to do with the way I have
GDOS installed on my computer.

The Touch-Up Desktop

Figure 1 shows the basic
Touch-Up screen. Commands can
be entered either by way of the
icons on the left of the screen or by
accessing the drop-down menus at
the top. There are also a number of
keyboard shortcuts using the func¬
tion keys and the <alternate> key in
combination with another character.
Most of the icons have equivalent
menu entries. The icon menu is
divided into five sections. The Mode
icon pad at the top selects the
mode of operation: Drawing, Clip,
Text, Lightning, File, and Scan
Mode (Scan mode is not currently
implemented).

Under the Mode icon pad is the
Tool icon pad. The icons here
represent the functions which are
active in each mode. As you would

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 15

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

Desk File VieH Edit Clip Text

F:\TOUCHUP\SflMPLE,IM6\BEflR MHG.IMP

Touch-Up
features
Tear-away
menus

Figure 2

expect, the tools (and the icons)
change from mode to mode. It
would have been nice if there had
been a text entry somewhere on
the screen to help identify the icons
while you are learning the program.
Ca/amus uses this technique to
great effect.

Under the Tool pad icon are the
color buttons to set the pen, line,
and pattern colors. Beneath that is
the Zoom indicator which allows
you to work with the entire image
on the screen at once or at xl, x2,
or x4 magnification-levels. There
are a couple of restrictions to keep
in mind relative to the zoom-level.
The Pen drawing tool doesn’t work
at Zoom Full and Lightning mode
can only use magnification level 1.
The Locator box describes the size
of your work area relative to the
size of the image and permits you
to slide the black rectangle over the
image to quickly move your work
area from one part of an image to
another.

Drawing Mode

Drawing mode includes an Ink¬
well icon to set the color of the pen
and patterns. The choices are black
or white for patterns and black,
white, or “opposite” for the pen.

Desk File Uicw Edit Clip Text

si Original ImagT

Figure 3

The “opposite” command means
that if you begin your drawing on a
black color, the pen color will be
white and vice versa. The Writing
Modes icon affects the way the
object you are drawing interacts
with the images already on the
drawing surface. You can choose to
cover the object underneath with

the current object,
have the current
object become trans¬
parent where it is
white, or reverse the
colors of the current
image and have the
resultant white areas
become transparent.

In the XOR mode the
dark areas of the cur¬
rent object become
white where they cross
the image underneath
and white areas turn
black.

Among other
things, the Miscellaneous Tools
icon allows you to clear the page
(takes a long time since all the
memory buffers have to be
cleared), invert the page (color
invert), expand the clip area to the
size of the entire page, and set the
page and clip area. The “Page/
Clip” command is one of the most
significant in Touch-Up and you
should understand its implications
before you try to hack your way
through the rest of the commands.
There is nothing more frustrating
than realizing the image you have
just spent hours creating is useless
because you failed to set the
proper resolution.

Selecting the “Page/Clip”
command brings up a dialog box
which defines both the page and
the clip area. It can be set to
inches, centimeters, or pixels. If
you load an image, its width and
height are given in the units you
selected. When the image you load
is smaller than the default page
size for high, medium, or low reso¬
lution pages you will see the page
size displayed as well. When the
image is exactly the same as the
default page size or larger, Touch-
Up will adjust the page size to
match the image size. Both values
will then be identical. This means
you can load and edit an image
larger than your screen size. You
may expand or reduce the image

size while preserving the dpi setting
by selecting new height and width
values and then instructing the pro¬
gram to adjust the image to the
new area. You can also wipe the
work area before beginning work on
a new page. Don’t forget to set the
resolution by choosing the proper
dpi setting to match your output
device. You must click on the DPI
box before or after entering the new
dpi values. If Touch -Up prevents
you from creating images with the
width and height you desire,
chances are you have exceeded
your system memory.

Other icons allow setting line
width and style, shadowing (includ¬
ing offset), patterns (at 75,150, and
300 dpi), size of the pen point,
ellipse (for circles and ellipses),
boxes (for squares and rectangles),
polylines, arcs and wedges, fill’(for
use with patterns), freehand
sketching, and adjustable B-spline
and Bezier curves.

Clip Mode

Clip mode allows you to select
any portion of the screen (sizing the
clip box) and then modify the
image with all sorts of special
effects. Command icons include
Writing mode, Miscellaneous tools,
Patterns, displaying or hiding the
clip area, loading, copying or saving
an image into and out of the clip
area, stretching the clip area, cut-

Page 16

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

Desk File View Edit Clin Text

*1 1our.li lip lid?. gcdldMc out line tout?

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Touch-Up ^5;

'j

alsodfeatures an;—r
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outlining capability

Figure 4

ting and pasting a clip area to and
from a clipboard, and setting the
clip box colors. You might find the
tear-away menus useful here (see
Figure 2). In addition, you can flip
the image horizontally, vertically, or
both. Some of you will get unantici¬
pated results when you select this
command. The culprit is Turbo ST. If
you have trouble with the arrows in
the first tutorial, turn off Turbo ST
before using Touch-Up.

In Clip mode you can mirror
images, rotate them (in 90 degree
increments only), slant them, or
process them. Processing com¬
mands include cleanup (removing
stray dots from the clip area), out¬
line (creates an outline of any black
area in the image—see Figures 3 &
4) and mask which is used with fill
patterns. Clip mode also includes
an IMG file viewer for previewing
IMG files before importing them into
Touch-Up. You can automatically
set the size of the clip area to
correspond to the size of the file.

Text Mode

In Text mode you can create
text captions and labels of up to 35
characters from the 10 outline fonts,
supplied in a variety of typestyles.
The letters can also be filled with
patterns if they are large enough.
The tools include Inkwell, Writing
mode, Miscellaneous tools, Font
selection, Typestyle, Pattern, Font
height (in dots, not point-size), and
keyboard entry of the text line. The
manual suggests that you set all the
attributes before typing the text into

the label, because once the text is
placed on the page it cannot be
modified. The fonts include Avant
Garde, Bookman, Calligraphy,
Chancery, Chicago, Computer,
Helvetica, Palatino, Schoolbook,
and Times. The quality of the fonts
depends partly on the resolution
and quality of your printer, but
while they are of good quality, they
are not as good as those produced
by Calamus. The typestyles or
attributes include bold, light, italics,
backslant (reverse italics), outline,
filled, underline, and fat. The height
of the text line can vary from 1 -999
dots, depending on your system
memory. Touch-Up employs thin
fonts for character sizes less than
or equal to 30 dots. Above 30 dots,
a thicker font is employed to
accommodate the outline and fill
options.

Lightning Mode

Lightning mode is a single
screen-sized paint program, dif¬
ferent from Drawing mode. In order
to work on sections of the image
outside the screen, you must exit
Lightning mode, scroll the new area
to the current screen, and then
reenter Lightning mode. Lightning
mode is faster than Drawing mode
and, since all the work is stored in
a buffer, there is an Undo com¬
mand that will erase the previous
operation or everything done dur¬
ing a session. Icons include Inkwell,
Writing mode, Line Styles, Spray
Brush Parameters (including spray
size, shape and saturation levels),
Patterns, Spray Tool, Ellipse, Box,
Sketch, B-spline and Bezier
curves, Fill, FatBits (for editing in¬
dividual dots), Lasso (to select a
portion of the screen to use as a
brush), and Eraser. Many of the
tools in Lightning mode can be
used to create brushes. Simple
brushes include ellipses, arcs, pies,
and boxes. Complex brushes in¬
clude sketched shapes, B-spline
and Bezier curves, and Lasso.

File Mode

File mode includes icons for
saving and loading full page IMG
files, Miscellaneous tools, Loading
and Saving other file formats, Pat¬
terns, Loading and Saving files into
the Clip area, and an IMG Viewer. If
you have 2 megabytes or more of
system RAM you may print IMG
files from within Touch-Up, but
your printer driver must be resident
to do so. As earlier stated, I was
unable to make this feature work
with my own GDOS set-up.

OUTPRINT works similarly to
Easy Draw with a few additions.
Like Easy Draw, Touch-Up saves
files with a corresponding GEM file.
You must load the GEM files from
OUTPRINT in order to send a file to
the printer. The device options in¬
clude selecting from a number of
paper sizes (including one that is
user-defined) and the ability to
select the output device ID number.
You can also select portrait or
landscape printing for the fill pat¬
terns and you can add a comment
or remark to the file.

The Bottom Line: I guess the
real question is whether you need
all this capability. It doesn't come
cheap; Migraph has placed a
$179.95 price tag on the package.
That’s enough to make the hobbyist
gasp, but it’s not over-priced for
the business market—even for the
Atari business market. What it
comes down to is, if you have a
scanner with decent resolution
(150-300 dpi) and/or a printer with
the same sort of resolution and you
want the capability to create or edit
correspondingly high resolution im¬
ages, Touch-Up is a necessity.
Nothing else will do it. No decent
desktop publishing system can
afford to be without it. Migraph has
a reputation for producing high
quality software and Touch-Up
certainly won’t detract from that
reputation.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 17

The Big Lie

Pretend for a moment we are
completely computer illiterate (it’s
not hard if you try). We are in a
business where a computer would
be ahighly desirable tool. After
reading some of the major maga¬
zines, we draw the conclusion that
an Apple Macintosh is in our future
(assuming we somehow missed the
Atari magazines).

We visit the local Apple Macin¬
tosh dealer to find the Mac SE
would suit us just fine. In fact, we
are told that in order to form a
complete system we need to shell
out another several hundred dollars
to get an Apple Imagewriter. An
Imagewriter is a printer custom built
for the Macintosh, the dealer “in¬
forms us.” It’s the only printer that
works with a Mac, sorry.

For The Informed

I know more than several Mac
users that are (or were) completely
unaware that a Mac can print to a
standard Epson printer. In fact, a
Mac can be tailored to print to many
other non-Apple printers such as
the HP Deskjet with very little effort.
The trick lies in the software used as
a “printer driver” by the System and
Finder files.

Now we don’t own a Mac, we
own a ST. We are also very for¬
tunate. Fortunate you say? How can

The Printer
Connection

an ST emulating a Mac be better
than a real Mac? Unplug your ST,
flip it around and look at all the
connectors. Do you see the one
called Parallel Printer Port! This is
the industry standard printer port.
We can connect virtually any printer
to the ST simply by plugging it in.
Isn’t life wonderful? This cannot be
done on a Mac—NO parallel printer
port exists.

Most likely you already own an
Epson compatible printer, or possi¬
bly, the HP Deskjet. To get up and
printing only requires a modification
of the Finder/System and printer
driver files. If you’re fortunate
enough to own the Atari Laser Prin¬
ter and a program called UltraScript
by Imagen, you can print your Mac
output in postscript mode! (Next
months’ column will be dedicated to
this connection).

Connecting an Epson

If you own an Epson compatible
printer, you can purchase a program
called EpStart by SoftStyle for
approximately $45. Make sure you
are getting the latest version (latest I
know of is 2.5). If you receive an
earlier version, it may not work with
Spectre. The old version does work
with Magic Sac. The reason for this
inconsistency is not due to emula¬
tion problems of Spectre, but rather
the version of Finder/Systems you
are using. The old version of EpStart
will only configure the older versions
of Finder/System files. If you own a
Magic Sac try to use Finder 5.4/
System 3.2 for best results. If you
own a Spectre, you should use
Finder 6.0/System 4.2 or the latest
available.

The program works in a very
straight forward manner. Use the

EpStart disk as your startup disk
when booting Spectre into Mac
mode. The program will automati¬
cally load and let you set the correct
parameters for your Epson, compat¬
ible, such as FX, LX, RX, etc... After
settings are correct, eject the
EpStart disk and insert your disk
with the Finder/System you use as
your startup disk. Click on MODIFY
in the pulldown menus. Your startup
disk will wiz around for a minute and
be configured for Epson printing.
Reboot and print away!

Connecting an HP Deskjet

If you own an HP Deskjet, the
printer connection is even easier.
There are several printer drivers for
this ink jet printer available. My per¬
sonal favorite is Printer Interface III
by DataPak Software, Inc. The in¬
stallation is trivial. Boot your Magic
Sac or Spectre. After the Mac desk¬
top appears, copy the HP DeskJet
file from the software disk to your
System folder. Now use the chooser
desk accessory to “choose” this
driver as the output device. That’s it!

An Extra Note

If you own an old version of
EpStart (before version 2.5), an
upgrade policy is in effect. Mail the
original EpStart disk plus $18.75
($15.00 for update plus $3.75 for
shipping and handling) to the
address below:

Phoenix Technologies Ltd.

SoftStyle

6600 Kalanianaole Hwy.

Honolulu, HI. 96825

I, personally, found SoftStyle
quick to send the update. Until next
month.

Page 18

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

New Spectre CN Library Disks

by Jeff Greenblatt

This month Current Notes is
releasing five new Spectre compat¬
ible (128K ROMs) PD or Shareware
library disks. As always, please be
sure to make your donation(s) to the
author(s) if you like and use the files
on these disks.

#S12D: Full Impact Demo.

A double-sided disk containing a
fully functional demo (including
printing) except for saving files. Full
Impact is an extremely powerful
spreadsheet program with even
more features and the power of
Excel. These features include over
one half million usable cells, its own
drawing tools, mixed fonts cell by
cell, charts and spread sheets on
the same page, and importing gra¬
phics from other programs.

#S13D, Stacks No. 2, con¬
tains 9 HyperCard stacks on a dou¬
ble-sided disk. They are VisualStack
(demonstrates the visual effects of
HyperCard), Chem Flash Cards
(learn about chemical compounds),
DisplayPict 1.4 (an XCMD to display
graphics), Indigo Gets Out (the
adventures of a cat), AutoCat (cata¬
logs disks), Animal Stack (lots and
lots of animal clip art), Comic (a
comic strip about the HyperCard
manual), OnTheBeach (a hyper ani¬
mation), and NameThatPlane (try to
identify all types of aircraft).

#S14, Utilities No.2, contains
12 very useful utility files and assor¬
ted documentation for their use.
They are Big DAs Runner (run large

DAs under Multi-
Finder), Mac ][

Icon (make your
system file icons
look like Mac ][
icons), DiskParam
(saves all control
panel settings in¬
cluding sound and
mouse settings),

Unstuffit DA 1.5.1
(a DA to unpack
files archived with
Stuffit), Auto Unstuffit Installer 1.5
(tag multiple files to automatically
unstuff themselves using this utility),
Interferon 3.1 (check for viruses),
Unstuffit 1.5.1 (unstuff files quickly
without using Stuffit), Repair 1.2
(repairs files that are infected with a
virus), ICON Designer
(edit existing and
create new icons),
Viewer 1.5.1 (a DA that
displays what files are
contained in a Stuffit
file), SuperClock 3.1
(displays the time and
optional date in the
upper left hand corner
of the screen), and
ToMultiFinder (use this
on boot up to choose
between the Finder and

MultiFinder).

#S15, Games No.3, contains
five new fun games. They are Darts
(plays assorted dart games with
multiple player
capabilities), Mac-
Camelot (joust
your way to earn
the hand of the
princess), Brick-
lesPlus (more fea¬
tures in this new
and improved ver¬
sion of this Break¬
out clone), Gravi¬
tation 4.0 (move
objects around
themselves and

others for visual effects), and
SwampLord (a real estate strategy
game).

#S16, DAs No.1, contains a
mixed bag of 10 DAs and related
documentation. They are NekoDA
(a diversion, watch an animated cat
chase your mouse), BezierDA
(draws Bezier curves), SnapShotDA
1.2 (set the timer and take pictures
of screens in MacPaint format like
the ones shown here), Adventure!
(a complete text adventure in a
DA), VirusDetective (checks all your
files for most of the common
viruses), BreakKey (set your break
key to any other key on the key¬
board), SysErrTableDA (displays a
list of all the Mac system errors and
what they mean), PinUp ClockDA (
an R-Rated clock), Freemem (dis¬
plays available free memory even
within applications), and New
Scrapbook DA (much better than
Apple’s with more features).

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 19

CU1BIBIENT NOTES MAOIC/SOECTOE ILIIIBlDAICy

These disks contain Mac programs for use with
the SPECTRE/MAGIC SAC Macintosh emulators.
Disks are $4.00 each. Order from CN Library, 122
N. Johnson Rd, Sterling, VA 22170. Add $1/6
disks forS&H.

Note: many of the Magic disk programs also
work with the Spectre 128, but not all. We do
know that the Adventure-type games now DO
WORK with version 1.9 of Spectre with the
SOUND turned on. Pinball Construction Set disks
are a real blast with SOUND turned on.

DESK ACCESSORIES

M8: DAs NO. 1. 3DTTT Game, Art Thief, Ascii,
Bagels Game, Big Ben, Calculator, CopyFile, DA
Tester 1.5, Delete File, Desk Acc. Tester, Desk-
Zap 1.2, Eject&Reset, Extras, File Hacker DA,
File Tools, Font Grapper+, Font Grapper3, Hex
Calculator, HP 12c, MemScan, MemWindow,
MerriMac Blackjack, miniWriter, MockTerminal,
MockWrite, Moire, MW Count, Other 3.0, Puzzle,
Reader, Rubik’s Cube, Sampler, Scrapbook,
Scientific Calculator, SetFile 3.3, SkipFinder,
TheBox, Tiler 1.5, Trails, Transfer, TrapList, Utils,
Word Count, Zoom Idle.

Ml8: DAs NO. 2. About Popup.txt, Alarm
clock, Art Grapper+, Calculator, Choose Scrap¬
book*, DA File, DA Tester 1.5, Disk Labeler,
Disklnfo 1.45 + SICNs, Explorer, Gone Fishin’,
Hex Calc, Label Maker, MemWindow, MiniWRI-
TER 1.34, Multi-Scrapbook, MW 4.5 Counter.DA,
Popup 1.0, ProCount, ReadiPrinter, Ruler,
SFstartup 1.0, Skipfinder 6.1, Sleep, Stars 1.6,
Stars II, Sysfonts, TeaTime, Timer.

M46: DAS NO. 3. 35 DAs: 3D Tic-Tac-Toe,
A-Bus ID Poker, Abacus, Calendar, CheapPaint,
Collapse, ConCode, Crabs2, DAFile, DAFont,
Disp.Msg, Double Apple, Executive Decision,
FatMouse, FixPic2.0, Flow, Fun House, Func
Keys, Font, Idle, KeyMouse, Knockout, Multi-
Scrap, MW to Text, New MiniDos, Orig Clock,
PaintDA, Poker, ProCount, Ruler, Tilerl .5, Time-
logger2.11, Utilities, Wrap, WXModem, Sample
It.

UTILITY DISKS

M2: TELECOM DISK NO. 1 BinHex 5 0, Free
Term 1.8, FreeTerm.Doc, Kermit, Packlt III (VI.3),
Stuff It 1.0, Term Works 1.3.

M3: UTILITIES NO. 1 DES, Font Doubler,
MacDump, Mini Finder, Packlt III (VI.3), Reverse
Screen I.Obl, RMover, Scan, Set File. SLICER.
Version Reader 1.1, Write Stream.

M5: DISK LIBRARIAN Disk Librarian VI 82A
Disk Librarian Doc, Short Doc. Contains listing of
CN MAGIC LIBRARY. (Spectre Compatible)

M9: UTILITIES NO. 2. Bind Icons, Change
Appl. Font, Convert Desk Acc., Desk Accessory
Mover, File Hacker, FontDoubler, Index,Make-
Screen, MicroFinder, Purgelcons, RamAStart
1.3, REdit, ResEd, SelectPaint, Show Version,
User Interface Demo.

Mil: PRINT UTILITIES Coventry-12, Disk
Labeler, Fast Eddie, Font Mover, Ink, MacWrite

4.5 to Text, miniWriter, MockWrite, Pica-10,
ReadMacWrite, Walla Walla-9.

M27: UTILITIES NO. 3 Browse/Shazam!,
Clocks: analog & digital, Edit, FEdit 3.0, launch,
lazymenu, Magic Beep 1.0, Menu Editor, micro-
Finder, Quick Dir, Quick Print, RamStart2.0+,
Road Atlas, ShrinkToFit, SicnEdit, SortMenu,
SortMenu Code, SuperFinder4.0, TabsOut,
Unpit, WayStation.

M28: RED RYDER 7.0. Red Ryder 7.0, Red’s
7.0 Stuff, RR7.0 Macros, RR Docs.

M43: UTILITIES NO. 4. DiSkDup*, MacSnoop
1.03, RamDisk* 1.4, ResTools 2.01, Oasis 2.01
(HFS), Font Librarian (HFS), Switch.

GAMES

M4: GAMES NO. 1. Backgammon, Bash Big
Blue, Curves, MacLuff, MacYahtezee, Maze 3D,
Meltdown, Missile Command, Munch, Pepsi-
Cas,Smile, Snow, Solitaire, Space Bubbles, Vax
Runner II.

M6: GAMES NO. 2. Ashes, Black Box, Des¬
troyer, HexPuzzle, Killer Kalah, MacPoly Demo,
Office Attack, Point Symmetry Demo, Snake,
Solitaire, Trophy List, Wall Game, Wheel.

M7: GAMES NO. 3. Ashes, Break the Bricks,
Deep Ennui, Go, Mac Gunner, MacBugs, Mac-
Command, MacYahtzee, Wiz Fire 1.1
M15: GAMES NO. 4. Alice, Amps 3.0(B2),
Bricks, Canfield 2.0,lago, Lets Get Tanked!,
MacHeads, Nim, Space Attack, Third Dimension.
M20: GAMES NO. 5. Chase’Em, Crystal Rai¬
der, Daleks, Golf MacWay, Kill File, Kill, King,
King.MacWrite, On-The-Contrary, StuntCop-
terl.2.

M21: GAMES NO. 6. Guess, Hacker’s Contest,
Hot Air Balloon, Match, Ramml.0, Third Dimen¬
sion, Trick-Track, Utaan Attack, Zero Gravity.
M25: GAMES NO. 7. Billiards, Cross Master
Demo, Flash Cards, Hangman-9.0, MacLuff,
Master Guess, Safari 1.0, Venn.

M30: GAMES NO. 8. Bowl-A-Rama, MacTrek
1.1, Mystery Box 1.0, Shots, Star Trek Trivia Quiz,
Window Blaster 1.0.

M34: GAMES NO. 9. 1000 Miles, Asteroids,
Cairo ShootOut!, Donkey Doo, Duck Hunt, Pente
1 . 0 .

M45: GAMES NO. 10. Blackjack 4.0, Gunshy
1.0, Humpback, New Social Climber, Panic, Puz¬
zle 1.0, Star Trek Trivia Quiz, VideoPoker.

M51: GAMES NO. 11. Bouncing Balls, Fire
Zone, Mac Word Hunt 2.0, Out Flank, Risk and
Word Search.

M53: GAMES NO. 12. 3D Checkers 2.0, Bills
Casino, BMX-The Racing Game, HeloMath,
Mouse Craps.

M58: GAMES NO. 13. Klondike 3.6, Space
Station Pheta, Mac Concentration, Sitting Duck,
Hot Air Balloon 2.1, Think Ahead+2.0.

M60: GAMES NO. 14. Golf Solitaire, Mac
Football, Euchre 2.2, Gomoku, Pyramid, Check¬
ers, Runaround and Macpuzzle 1.0.

M19: PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET
GAMES. Pinball Construction Set Player plus 12
Games: Apple, Black Hole, Face, KalinBall,
Madonna, Minute-Mag, Patchwork Mess, Phan¬
tom, Pure-Gemme, Samurai, The Royal Pain,
Wizards Lair. (Spectre Compatible)

M29: PCS GAMES NO. 2. Pinball Construction
Set Player plus Games: Circus Circus, D &D ,
Diadora, Max, Merlin, Modern Mistress, Queston,
The Royal Pain, Twilight Zone, Whazit.
(SPECTRE COMPATIBLE)

ADVENTURE GAMES

M17: DUNGEONS OF DOOM 4.0 Graphic
adventure game.

M23: VAMPIRE CASTLE. Graphic adventure
game.

M24: DEEP ANGST. Graphic adventure game.
1 Mb ST only.

M31: BLACK WIZARD. Graphic adventure
game by Richard Loggins.

M36: CASTLE OF ERT. Shareware graphic
adventure game.

M40: HACK, Version 1.03. Game is similar to
Rogue, includes manual with full docs.

M41: RADICAL CASTLE. Graphic/text adven¬
ture game.

M63D: MOUNTAIN OF MAYHEM
M65D: DEEP ANGST II
M66: INTRUDER

GRAPHICS

M10: GRAPHICS NO. 1. Amy, Artisto, ball
demo, Big Ben, Brooke, Bugs, Curves, Display
Message, Dragon, Fighting 51, Fourth Dimen¬
sion, GARF, HotSex!, Liar’s Club, Living Art, Max
Headroom, Moire 3.0, Nightmare, Optical Illu¬
sion, Paint Grabber, Painter’s Helper #1, Pat¬
tern*, Pisces, Rotations, Saddle, The Fourth
Docs, ViewPaint 1.5.

M12: MACBILLBOARD. Chipmunks, Donald &
daisy, Goofy At Bat, Announcement, Babe Ruth,
Carrotprint, Classic illusions, Escher, Escher
Hands, MacBILLBOARD (MacPaint clone), Max,
Mickey and Minney, mm, Quick Tour, T-Shirt.
(Spectre Compatible) ■*

M22: GRAPHICS NO. 2. BlowUp 3.0, BlowUp
Notes, CalendarMaker 2.2.1, Dynamo, Graphic,
MadMenus, Math21, Rays, Simutree, Spiro, Tree,
Vanlandingham.

M26: GRAPHICS NO. 3. 3D Sketch, AniRama,
Bin/Graphics, Brownian Motion, Control, Fractal
Contours, Fractals, Icon Collector, Julia, Make-
Paint, Melting Clock, Small View, ShapeArt, Star-
Flight, Window Demo.

M47: GRAPHICS NO. 4. Cursor Designer,
Earthplot3.0, Graphics2.0, Mondrian 1.0, Motion-
Maker2.0, Moving Finger, Wallpaper, Zoomation.
M57: GRAPHICS NO. 5. Contains 6 graphics-
oriented applications or DAs: Micro Film Reader
1.4, Bomber, lliana II, Preview, Super Ruler 1.1,
and XVT-Draw.

Page 20

Current Notes

Vol.9, No. 3

CUCEENT NOTES MaVOIIC//SIPIECTICIE LUBCAICY

FONT DISKS
(Spectre Compatible)

M13: FONT DISK NO. 1. Akashi, AlgBlurb,
Algebra, Athens, Boxie, Dover, Geneva, Hood
River, ImageWriter, LED, London, Los Angeles,
Luxor, Mars, Monaco, Park Ave, Pica, Ravenna,
Rome, Runes, San Francisco, Seattle, Steel
Brush, Ultra Bodoni.

M14: FONT DISK NO. 2 Bookman, Courier,
Coventry, Dali, Genevaa, Hebrew, Manteco,
Shadow Box, Sri Lanka, Times, Walla Walla, and
font display 4.6 w/docs.

M16: FONT DISK NO. 3. About Lachine, Alice,
Avante Garde, Berkeley, Broadway, Camelot,
Cartoon, Centura, Chancery, Eon, Exeter, Fal-
lingwater, Fantaste Key, Fantaste!, Future, Ham,
Helvitica, Hollywood, Lachine, Lineal, Madrid,
Pittsubrg, San Quentin, Silicon Valley, Stencil,
Unicoi plus DAFont2.da and SysFonts.da.

M32: FONT DISK NO. 4. Canberra, Chicago,
Humanistic, Music, New Dali, Palencia Applica¬
tion, Palo Alto, Pioneer Shadow plus F/DA sorter
and Font Tester.

M35: FONT DISK NO. 5. Beehive, Beverly
Hills, Boise, Chicago, Courier, DeStijl, Ham,
Happy Canyon, Helvitica, Mod. Chicago, Old
English, Square Serrif, Sri Lanka, Worksheet.

M42: FONT DISK NO. 6. 15 new fonts: Berlin,
Boston II, Courier, Dorza, Highwood, MicroBos-
ton, MiniBoston, New York, Palo Alto, Sparta,
Stiletto, Symbol, Tatooine, Venice, Wartburg.
M44: FONT DISK NO. 7. 18 new fonts: 42nd
Street, Aldous, Art Deco, Ascii, Blockbuster,
Border, Clairvaux with docs, Coptic, Deep Box,
Ivy League, Klingon, Las Vagas, Little Box,
Madrid, Memphis, Minneapolis, Rivendell, Spok¬
ane.

M50: FONT DISK NO. 8 Alderney 9-48; Cairo
18; Cyrillic 12; Greek 10,20; Paint 18; Playbill
12,18,24; Rehovot 10,12,20,24;Runes 12,24;

Washington 12; Zodiac 18.

M61: FONT DISK NO. 9. New Century 10-24,
Helvetica 10-24, Columbia 9-24, Minneapolis 36,
Creamy 10-24, Palatino 10-24, Detroit 24, and
Zap Chancery 10-24.

M64: FONT DISK NO. 10. York, Paint, Miscpix,
Icon, Cupertino, Arabic, Fallingwater, Schematic,
Moscow, and Isengard.

M67: FONT DISK NO. 11 Cavanough, lcon2,
Fletcher, Math-Greek, Toyland, Troyes, Mem¬
phis, Provo, Scan, Tombstone, Southbend,
Klingon, Wall Street.

CLIP ART
(Spectre Compatible)

M33: CLIP ART NO. 1. Aircraft, Business, Car
Logos, Cars & Trucks, Clip Art Demo, Disney,
Eyeballs, Flowers, Misc, Seasons,Treesl,
Trees2, ViewPaint 1.5.

M52: CLIP ART NO. 2. 27 files: Al&Jimmy,
Americana, Arrows, Bigger Guys, Billboards,
Borders, Cars, Cartoons, Cats, Celebrities, Egret,
Famous People, Farm Animals, Good Guys,

Gorilla, Hopefuls, Little Guys, MacLectic Clip Art,
More Little Guys, Presidents, Rain/Chef, Skier/
Football, Skylines, Space/Race, Statues, Tennis/
Running, Wine & Beer.

M55: CLIP ART NO. 3. 26 clip art docs in
MacPaint format: Animals, arrows, books, busi¬
ness, calendar, computer, disk, files, geography,
holiday, houses, iconsl-6, mail, memo, miscl,
misc2, money, music, office, people and sym¬
bols.

COMMERCIAL DEMOS
(Spectre Compatible)

M37: MAC-A-MUG PRO DEMO Version 10,
Create your own mug shots by combining a
variety of different facial features.

M38: VIDEO WORKS PLAYER NO. 1 PD
player for Video works animated screens. In¬
cludes 11 movies.

M39: DEMO DISK NO. 2. Demos of Anatomi-
ser (learn human anatomy), DeskPaint (desk acc
MacPaint clone), and SuperPaint (graphic pro¬
gram with both MacPaint and MacDraw fea¬
tures).

M54: DESIGN. Full working version of the
program Design (no save feature). Includes 5
samples and full documentation.

M59D: DEMO DISK NO. 3 Demo version of
Kaleidagraph and Geographies II. Double-sided
disk.

M62: DEMO DISK NO. 4 Math Blaster and
Blob Manager Demo.

HYPERCARD DISKS
(Spectre Compatible)

M48D: HYPERSTACKS NO. 1 Address,
Databook, Fractal, Funy Day, Home Desk,
HyperNews 1.2, HyperZoetropes, MacGallery,
MacVermont #2, Notebook, Periodic Table, and
ResEditIPS. (Double-Sided)

M49D: HYPERSTAKCS NO. 2. Ear, Illusions,
Passing Notes, Shipstack, Silly, and US States
V2. (Double-Sided) NOTE M48 and M49 require
HyperDA using 64K ROM Spectre or Magic Sac.
M56D: HYPERSTACKS NO. 3 Contains only
1 hyperstack, Atkinson’s 786K Clip Art Stack, with
500 pieces of clip art. Disk is Double-sided and
requires HyperDA when using 64K ROM Spectre
or Magic Sac.

SPECTRE 128
Public Domain Library

Note: These disks require Spectre 128 (128K
ROMs) and DO NOT work with 64K ROMs unless
otherwise noted.

SI: MACWRITE 5.0 DEMO (Cannot print or
save documents but can load and read doc
files.)

S2: MACPAINT 2.0 DEMO (Cannot print or
save files but can load and view and create
them.)

S3D: RED RYDER 9.4 (DS disk) This is the last
shareware version to be released before it

became a commercial product. One of the most
powerful telecommunications programs avail¬
able for the Mac. Full docs and utilities for batch
downloading included.

S4D: ALDUS FREEHAND DEMO (DS disk) A
Videoworks II interactive demonstration of Free¬
hand drawing program.

S5: GAMES #1: Banzai, Monopoly 4.0, ATC
4.0, Mines, New Daleks, Brickies 4.0
S6D: POWERPOINT DEMO (64K ROMs
COMPATIBLE)(DS disk) Fully working demo ver¬
sion of this popular Mac program for planning,
composing, and creating complete presen¬
tations. (Also works with Magic Sac).

S7: GAMES #2: Space Bubbles, Stratego,
Investigator #1, Towers of Hanoi, Marienbad
S8: IMAGE STUDIO DEMO (Does not save)
A photo retouching lab on the desktop, modify
digitized images in 65 grey scale levels.

S9: TELECOM #1: Stuffit 1.51. Stuffit Users
Guide, Freeterm 2.0, Freeterm 2.0 Documen¬
tation, Term Works 1.3, Packet III (version 1.3)
S10D: STACKS #1: Concentration, Hyper-
Gunshy, Dinosaurs, AutoStack, Home 1.2 (DS
Disk)

S11: UTILITIES #1: MacEnvy, Benchmark,
DiskTimer II, Samplelt 1.21, Samplelt Docs,
Apfont 3.2, HierDA, Fever, OnCue 1.3 DEmo,
ScreenDump II, Findsweel 2.0 Demo
SI 2D: FULL IMPACT DEMO (DS Disk) An
extremely powerful spreadsheet program with
even more features then Excel. (No save fea¬
ture.)

S13D: STACKS #2: VisualStack, Chem Flash
Cards, DisplayPict 1.4, Indigo Gets Out, AutCat,
Animal Stack. Comic. OnTheBeach. anme That
Plane. (DS Disk)

S14: UTILITIES #2: Big Das runner, Mac II
Icons, DiskParam and Docs, Utilities 1.5.1 Guide,
Unstuffit DA 1.5.1, Auto Unstuffit Installer 1.5,
Repair 1.2, ICON Designer, Viewer 1.5.1, Super-
Clock 3.1, SuperClock Doc ToMultiFinder. Inter¬
feron 3.1, Interferon Instructions
S15: GAMES #3: Darts. MacCamelot. Brick-
lesPlus, Gravitation 4.0, Swamplord
S16: DAs #1: NekoDA, BezierDa and JOocs,
SnapShotDA 1.2, Adventure and Docs, VirusDe-
tective and Docs, BreakKey and Docs, SysErr-
TableDA, PinUp Clock DA, Freemem, New
Scrapbook DA

NOTE: CN discount prices are available for
quantity orders:

10+disks ($3.80 each)

20+disks ($3.60 each)

30+disks ($3.40 each)

40+disks ($3.20 each)

50+disks ($3.00 each)

Add $1/6 disks for shipping and handling.

Order from CN Library, 122 N. Johnson Rd,
Sterling, VA 22170.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 21

Both XL/XE and ST

Current Notes Authors Make Their Picks... Dozens of
Mini-Re vie ws... What Makes A tari Great?

The Best

Atari Software

Edited by Bi/J Moes

It seemed like a good idea.

Blend the expertise of numer¬
ous Current Notes authors into an
article showcasing and highlighting
some of the best software titles for
all Atari computers.

Ask those CN authors to pick
titles they regard most highly. And
write a brief review of each. Around
25 words ... just enough.

In this final collection, some
programs are mentioned by more
than one author. And their popu-

larity should be noted. But with no
heavily structured (and limiting)
format, some popular titles are left
unmentioned. And perhaps that can
be rectified in the future.

Current Notes is well-known
for its in-depth and comprehensive
reviews. While that policy won’t
change, it's still interesting to step
back, relax, and quickly survey this
Land of Atari. What follows is our
first step in that survey.

The rich variety of software
mentioned should provide each of
us with a better understanding of
what’s available ... or what was
available once. May this article also
provide us with worthwhile, enjoy¬
able, and entertaining moments.

There is poetry ... there is
humor ... there are pithy and to-
the-point observations. They are all
there for a single reason: you.

Enjoy.

— 1 — -j-| -—

STtWordprocessors

-till -

WordPerfect: The program that threatens to turn
the Atari ST into a professional’s computer in spite of
Atari’s impotent management. (WordPerfect Corp.)

—Dick Biow

STWriter: After praising another word processor
for functions like indexing and footnoting, I still find
myself using this one: familiar, old, nearly-free. The
good old Bottom-of-File key (w/ Search key for
returning to the numbers) makes end-notes, if not
footnotes, easy enough. It has converted some
IBM-modemed files, with Replace translating the
markers. Reminds me to save file if it’s about to make
a fatal crash. The Change Case key makes things
easy. But a plea: how about real line/page numbers.
You could do indexes, tables of contents, page
counts, find ends of pages for adding blank numbered
pages for photos and whatever, plus ....! (PD)

—Dorita Sewell

WordPerfect:

When first issued, WordPerfect was not!

After five revisions, it is yet to be!

But, I use it a lot,

For it is the best available for the ST!

—Robert W. (Bob) Ford

Tempus: This text editor was meant for the
programmer! In addition to being unbe/ievab/y fast, it
also has many features designed specifically to aid in
the development of software. This is one program I
wouldn’t want to do without! (Eidersoft)

—Robert M. Birmingham

STWriter: This PD program has everything I’ve
ever wanted in a word processor. I am anxiously
waiting for v.3.0 (what more can I say?).

—Carl C. Hahn

WordPerfect: Having multiple fonts would be
nice, but having a solid, professional word processing
program is more important. And this is the on/yowQ on
the ST!

—David Duberman

STWriter: The best software value ever for the
ST! Professional writers use this public domain word
processor to make a living. More than adequate for
almost any writing task.

—Robert Goff

Page 22

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ST: Utilities

MultiDesk: I use this as an accessory (it can also
operate as a program) on all my boot disks. It breaks
the six accessory limit, and lets you load and use
different accessories, and flush them out of memory
when you’ve finished. (CodeHead Software)

—Carl C. Hahn

Universal Item Selector: The best utility avail¬
able on any machine. By replacing and enhancing the
item selector, it makes a complete toolbox for disk
operations available just when you need it most. I’m
crippled without it! (Application & Design Software)

—Robert Goff

Superboot: Auto loads, accessories, GDOS’s ...
confusion galore! This auto-booter brings order to the
fore. Pick, choose, and boot up your beauties in any
screen config you really dig. (shareware)

—Frank Sommers

MultiDesk: A Cure for addiction. If you are
addicted to desk accessories, like I am, then this is
just what the doctor ordered. An elegant solution that
works as advertised!

—Kirk Osterman

Super Directory: This is a disk library program
everyone needs. It does the job easily, neatly, and
quickly. It will sort, find, or print your files in almost any
way you can think of, and capacity is only limited by
your computer’s memory. (MichTron)

—Carl C. Hahn

NeoDesk: This is the desktop the ST should have
been born with. You can hope that Atari will wake up
and burn it (and the brilliant Universal Item Selector)
into the next ROM’s—or you can take matters into
your own hands. The menagerie of custom icons, the

Desk File View Options

A:\

*T: B:\SHflPSS TT

C:\

202502 byte*.used in

J.I409? bytes used in

7Z8284 bytes usee

Directory: # PAS DOC ASM ASC *

8 AUTO
AfiPARK PRC

BLAST PRO

CALLFSEL ACX

CLOCK ACC

CLOCK RSC

Desk File View Options

Cl\

8284_bytesused

AUTO

AAPARK PRO
BLAST PRG
CALLFSEL ACX
CLOCK ACC
CLOCK RSC
_rnLDBDni_ins

TTY"

T0UCH_UP
AASEZDSS SYS
BITLOO OEM
SCHARGER PRG
SCHARGER RSC
jrnur.uimi._r.ur_.

pflinnnni me

33458 bytes used i

K EASYDRAU
GEMSYS

S TOUCH—UP
AASEZDSS SYS
BITLOG GEM
SCHARGER PRG
! SCHARGER RSC

Tniipunni rur

smart windows with files neatly arranged to fit ....
Shouldn’t your desktop feel like home? (Gribnif)

—Christopher Anderson

Universal Item Selector II: I have this program
in an auto folder on each of my boot disks. It’s so
much better (and more versatile) than the stock item
selector that I couldn’t get along without it. It’s
automatic, and there’s even an accessory that lets you
call it up from the desktop.

—Carl C. Hahn

G+plus: This program has made an amazing
difference in the speed my screen refreshes in such
programs as Easy Draw. This is what GDOS should
have been! It conquers the ASSIGN.SYS dilemma,
too. I don’t know how I ever clipped art without it.
(CodeHead)

--Pamela Rice Hahn

Uniterm: A terminal program for all seasons. With
more features than you can shake a stick at, and for
only the cost of a PD disk. This is a terminal program*
for the rest of us.

—Kirk Osterman

Universal Item Selector: From the “it should
have been built-in dept.” One utility that no SI owner
should be without in his auto folder.

—Kirk Osterman

Generation Gap:

If you want to dig up your family root,

And feel you must compute,

Remember that Flying Pigs has finally taken off
With version 4, and it keeps me from playing too much
golf. (Flying Pigs Software)

—Robert W. Ford

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 23

ST: Games

Ultima IV (Quest
of the Avatar):

Dungeon Master and the
Bard’s Tale give me
vicarious claustrophobia;
the sprawling game
world of Britannia’s more
my cup of mead. The ST
version includes
dungeon saves: to Ulti—
maniacs, this seems a
triumph over natural law!
(Origin)

—Bob Millard

Cinemaware: Any Cinema-
ware game on a one-meg
machine! I’m sick of this “great
graphics ... paltry play” rap. Master
Designer Software makes “total
experience” games, not CRPG’s,
wargames, or shoot-’em-ups. The
second wave, led by Lords of the
Rising Sun, may silence the critics.

—Bob Millard

Gunship: Great action game
as you pilot the Apache AH-64
chopper through enemy territory
and try to come out in one piece. A
classic! (MicroProse)

—Roger Abram

Shanghai: Piles of colored
tiles. Match ’em at the top, or at the
ends. Keep your eyes moving,
clicking pairs away, ‘til you’re left

Shanghai

with none. Like popcorn? (Activi¬
sion)

—Frank Sommers

SSI conversions by West-
wood: (Roadwar 2000, Phantasie
III, Questron II) They nearly dis¬
prove the axiom that a great con¬
version cannot save a mediocre
game.

—Bob Millard

Gridiron: No breathtaking
graphics, just a fun football game
where you can call (and even
create) your own plays. The perfect
panacea following a Redskin
defeat. (Bethesda Softworks)

—Roger Abram

Cards: Some people refer to it
as vegetating. I personally prefer to
think of it as creatively occupied
daydreaming. I
can’t think of
any better way
to let my mind
wander than
seated in the
front of my ST,
playing “Klon¬
dike.” Great
graphics; swift
mouse move¬
ment; reshuffle
or erase a
negative

balance at a click.
Relaxing diversion.
(MichTron)

—Pamela Rice Hahn

Leader Board:

Whenever my parents
come up from Florida to
visit, I can forget about
using my ST for anything
other than slicing down
the fairways as my Dad
challenges me to tour¬
nament after tournament
on this golf simulation.
(Access Software)

—Roger Abram

Dungeon Master: the only
game I’ve ever played that made
me forget I was playing a game!
(FTL)

—David Duberman

ST: \

Hardware-

Monochrome Monitor: Its

sharp, crisp display and ability to
display black on white make it a
joy to use for such text-intensive
applications as word processing,
spreadsheets, and databases.
(Atari)

—Robert Nielsen

Spectre 128: A masterpiece
from a most impressive program¬
mer. For anyone who has enter¬
tained dark thoughts of bagging it
all and buying a Mac, this is a Mac
— and a good one, too! Fast,
reliable, and endowed with the
best software support in the busi¬
ness, Dave Small's triumph is
reportedly turning Apple an envi¬
ous green. (Gadgets by Small)

—Christopher Anderson

Page 24

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

XL/XE: Gaines

Crusade In Europe: five scenarios ranging from
D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge. All sorts of
variations, a simple game system, and detailed,
easy-to-follow documentation. More
fun than most SSI simulations and
beatable without cheating. (Micro-
Prose)

—Len Poggiali

Primary Language: A disk full of
fun alphabet and reading games for
younger children, some of which can
be adapted for continuing use by
inserting your own questions and
answers into the BASIC programs.
Eight games in all, with Novatari’s
thoughtful on-disk documen¬
tation and packaging.
(PD...Novatari, ED Disk #2)

—Patrick H. Adkins

Firebug: A fast, exciting
arcade-style game with staying
power. A burrowing insect must
protect its buried eggs from
various lethal intruders. A
bizarre, addictive machine-
language mix of bugs, lasers,
and bombs. (Analog)

—Patrick H. Adkins

Frogger: the first game I
bought for my Atari 800. The
cassette took nearly five minutes
to load. But when it did! Great
music, great graphics, and fun to
play! Seven years later, it’s still
addictive. (Sierra)

—John Godbey

ST: Graphics

Cyber Sculpt: Tom

Hudson has put his
experience with CAD-3D to
good use in creating — by
far — the most powerful 3D
object editor available for any
personal computer! (Antic)

—David Duberman

Kennedy Approach: Job strain! They struck and
Reagan struck back. He fired ’em. But air traffic
control was in safe hands as Atarians took control of
our skies. (MicroProse)

—Frank Sommers

Wishbringer: a nice, little story
about a likable mailman who leaves
his village one day to deliver a letter.
When he returns, his community has
become a police state. A special
place in my heart for this one: it’s the
only Infocom story I’ve ever finished
without using a hint book. (Infocom)

--Len Poggiali

T MMilii

ii

m

Paperclip Elite: This pro¬
gram proved that you can pro¬
mise them anything, but then tell
them it was all GDOS’s fault. This
is the program that promised all
that Word-Up delivered and then
said that it was impossible. (So
how did Neocept do it?)

Paintworks and
Paintpro: both have
great features that
Degas Elite lacks. In
fact, they both
operate much more
intuitively than DE.

(Why do you have to
select a color (e.g.
white) in magnify mode with DE
when white is the only other color
you could possibly change a pixel
to if it is black?) These two both
have full page modes to make
fast WYSIWYG posters. Either
could have been big hits. I have
early versions of both, but I did
not buy upgrades nor recom¬

mend them to others because
they are copy-protected!

Timeworks: A software
company that I love to love. This
company promised its producti¬
vity trio (Word Writer, Swiftcalc,
and Datamanager) after they
shipped. I have never locked up
or crashed Word Wri¬
ter. When I sent them
$10 to write a printer
driver because I could

•1

not get one to work
properly with their in¬
stall program (in itself
a man/el of simplicity

and power ... I still

blame the failure of the driver on
the printer manual), they sent
back the $10 along with the

proper custom-made driver! I

didn’t even need to supply the
disk.

—all by Timothy E. (Menno)
Rapson

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 25

=

ill

zr-z - -

=

■ , ll

!

i

ST: DTP

MAC/65 Assembler: A cartridge. For me, pro¬
gramming the Atari 8-bit was never more enjoyable
than when I had MAC/65 plugged in. With blindingly
fast assembly times, and a built-in debugger, this
product was second to none! (OSS)

—Robert M. Birmingham

Express: With an inexpensive modem, your
computer’s horizons are unlimited. All you need is the
software. For the 8-bit Atari, this is the best. And it’s
public domain.

—John Godbey

Master Menu+: A menu program to serve all
your needs. Loads from BASIC, runs BASIC or
machine language programs with the touch of one or
two keys, copies *.DOC files to screen for viewing.
Even includes “mini-DOS” with all the standard DOS
2.X features. Very useful. (PD)

—Patrick H. Adkins

Turbo BASIC: Another public domain gem. For
all those quick and dirty programs, this is the language
to use.

—John Godbey

First XLEnt Word Processor: multiple windows,
an 80-column preview screen, an icon command
system, and graphic integration capabilities are some
of the many features of this inexpensive, sophisticated
program. I wouldn’t trade in Paperclip, but I might
consider retiring AtariWriter. (XLEnt Software)

—Len Poggiali

And the Winners Are/

Best Atari Software Mini Review Awards

Most Complete Entry -Awwci, . Carl & Pam Hahn

Style Award . Chris Anderson

Bend the Rules Award .. Menno Rapson

Poetry-In-Motion Award . Bob Ford

Mini Reul ew winners will be sent a Mint Atari Calculator.

Publisher ST: the first “productivity tool” to give
me that silly “I love my computer” grin. Its power rivals
packages costing hundreds more on the Mac and the
IBM, yet it retains that rare ST quality: grace! Polished,
sleek, and smooth. It literally makes you want to work.
(Timeworks)

—Christopher Anderson

Easy Draw (Supercharged): Having the ability
to clean up scanned .IMG and other clip art files is
great. Simple to use and gives me simply wonderful
results. (Migraph)

—Pamela Rice Hahn

Publisher ST: Fantastic-looking output on 9-pin
printers! Style sheets make implementing global
changes in document very easy.

—David Duberman

Touch Up: A definite advantage for those times
when, in conjunction with my QMI Touch Tablet, I need
to create my own clip art. (Migraph)

—Pamela Rice Hahn

Yes, this collection of mini-reviews is almost as
interesting for what it leaves out as for what it includes.
(Notice the lack of ST MIDI?) And that is probably
normal for this kind of article, an article that depends on
donated effort and represents the eclectic views of the
authors.

So, maybe you have some ideas of your own?
Perhaps your favorite software wasn’t mentioned ... and it
should have been!

How about a challenge?!

Is this type of article something you’d like to see
once in a while? The inquiring minds at Current Notes'
want to know!

If there is sufficient interest, perhaps in a few months
your favorite software title could be included in a similar
article. Or maybe, instead of an article on favorite
software, it could be, as Len Poggiali suggested, a “wish
list” of software you’d like to see published. Or we could
follow Patrick H. Adkins’ suggestion and go for “The
Most Detested Programs.”

What do you think? You’d like to tell everyone about
your choice, wouldn’t you? And have your “pick” noted
by thousands! Sound exciting?

Current Notes could be the first major Atari
magazine to sponsor true reader participation!

Tell the CN Editor what you think about this. He
likes mail. Send him some: Joe Waters, 122 N. Johnson
Rd., Sterling, VA 22170.

Page 26

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

Computer Center

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New Software Titles for Atari ST.

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Corruption

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Sun 12-5 (3011948-0256

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

ST WORD PROCESSORS

How To Pick The Right One For You....
By Jim Wallace

Back in the Spring of 1985, it
was a whole lot easier choosing a
word processor for the Atari ST.
Although GEM Write was originally
supposed to ship with the ST, it
didn’t. What did ship was a non-
GEM, non-“WYSIWYG” program
called ST Writer, which was basi¬
cally an 80-column version of the
popular 8-bit program by the same
name. Later, the first real “GEM-
ized” program (called First Word)
appeared, which offered more
state-of-the-art features.

Today, the Atari ST actually
supports more word processors
than any other computer on the
market. Because in addition to the
more than a dozen good ST word
processors now available, you can
also use most IBM, Mac, and CP/M
word processors through inexpen¬
sive emulation! Indeed, in our his¬
tory, computer users have never
had the software selection that’s
now available for the Atari ST—
certainly, a truly remarkable com¬
puter! But unfortunately, along with
this vast selection of software
comes the difficult task of selecting
which program is best for your
needs.

Can’t See The Forest For
The Trees?...

Any astronaut can tell you that
it’s much easier to tell the “big
picture” from a high earth orbit,
than it is from the ground. This is
because we tend to get lost in the
fine details. So now, let’s take a
quick (but organized) bird’s-eye
view of the types and flavors of ST
word processors now available.
Word processors now run the gam¬
bit from simple “text editors” to
full-blown “WYSIWYG” (What You
See on the screen Is approximately

What You will Get on paper) pub¬
lishing programs. Most word pro¬
cessors however, fall somewhere
between these two extremes. And
ironically, although WYSIWYG
seems like the likely choice, there
are still many good reasons for
using “old fashioned” text-only
style programs.

Text Editors

Relatively simple “text editors”
are not only used for programming
and the fast creation of handy
“script files,” but are also used for
producing “ASCII” text files for later
import into desktop publishing pro¬
grams. In fact, although I own
almost every word processor avail¬
able for the ST, I am now using one
of these simple “text editors” to
produce this article—and why?
Because almost everything I write
is either sent to a magazine editor,
or is imported into a publishing
program. The ability to quickly pro¬
duce generic text files is what I
need. I don’t care at this stage of
the process about formatting, gra¬
phics, text attributes, or whatever. I
personally find that it is far better to
“keep it simple,” allowing me to
concentrate on the content—not
the final product.

Since text editors aren’t “bur¬
dened” by fancy screen graphics
and other advanced formatting
features, they generally perform
much faster, and offer easier to
read displays (less eye strain), and
are both quick to learn and easy to
use. While having most features
wanted by programmers, they sup¬
port only basic word processing
functions. Features like bold and
underlined text, headers and foot¬
ers, spelling correction, etc. are
generally not supported.

Some examples:

Micro-EMACS\ An old
“main-frame” text editor now avail¬
able for the ST. Perhaps “the”
choice for programers. This free,
high-powered PD program offers
“zillions” of features and can do
just about anything.

Tempus. This commercial pro¬
gram uses GEM and all the trim¬
mings. Very fast screen
updates...you’ll love it!

Interlink. Yes, you can use this
telecommunication program’s fast,
built-in text editor for more things
than you might think...try it!

ED.PRO. A quick and dirty
Unix text editor that’s really handy. I
keep this in my root directory for
creating script files, notes, etc. on-
the-fly. Look for it, and other PD
(public domain) programs on your
favorite BBS.

Text-Only Word Processors

Following dedicated systems
like Wang and the IBM DisplayWri-
ter, the first true word processors
for personal computers soon
emerged. Electric Pencil and Word¬
Star lor the Apple II, IBM, and CP/M
machines like the original Kaypro
were “golden oldies.” Up a notch
from text editors, these first-gener¬
ation word processors offer addi¬
tional features for working with
words.

Text-only word processors
actually fall into at least two dif¬
ferent categories: those that sup¬
port only one text style (default
text), and those that also support
enhanced text styles such as bold,
italic, etc.

Default Text: These word
processors are actually a carry¬
over from computer systems which
did not have bit-mapped screens.
Instead of displaying text attributes
like bold on screen, they instead
show command codes like “ / 'B” to
indicate that bold type is to be used
by the printer, or a “~C” indicating
that a word or line is to be cen¬
tered. Examples include:

Page 28

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

ST Writer. A throw back to the
old 8-bit days, but still powerful and
very popular. This free PD program
is also available in Spanish and
German. (Ed. Note: Version 3.0 of
ST Writer is now avai/ab/e as CN
Library disk #321.)

Wordstar. Yes, you can run
both the CP/M and the IBM versions
of this classic on your ST with
software emulators. WordStar does
“about everything,” but is very hard
to learn.

PFS Write. This tremendously
popular “bread and butter” IBM
program can be used with “pc-
ditto.” Highlighted color text is used
on screen to indicate text attributes
such as bold (yellow), ita/ic (red),
etc. PFS Write is so “comfortable”
to use that you may not at first
notice its many powerful, practical
features!

Enhanced Text: Most pro¬
grams use the ST’s bit-mapped
screen capabilities to display on¬
screen bold, underline, centering,
etc. However, only the ST’s built-in
“default” screen fonts are used.
The actual fonts which will print out
are determined by the fonts which
are built into your printer—not the
fonts shown on the screen.

Text-only word processors still
dominate in the IBM world, and
remain the real “work horses” of
the industry. While most IBM pro¬
grams don’t show on-screen text
attributes like bold or italic, most
Atari ST programs do. While bit¬
mapped screens are usually an
add-on on most IBM systems, they
come standard on the Atari ST and
the Mac. Some examples:

First Word: First Word, First
Word P/us, and Word Writer ST are
all very similar, and are currently the
most popular choices for the
average user. {First Word P/us can
also import and display graphics on
screen in a somewhat limited fash¬
ion).

Text-Pro: This program takes
a different approach by offering the
user two screens: one for quick

editing, and one for “previewing”
text attributes and formatting on
screen.

WordPerfect. Currently the
world’s most popular word proces¬
sor. In fact, many companies will
offer you a job if you are familiar
with it! This is the only program that
runs on the “big four” (IBM, Mac,
Atari ST, and Amiga). If you can
afford it, it’s the BEST—especially
for those really big jobs.

“WYSIWYG” Word
Processors

These second-generation word
processors are currently the most
talked about and popular programs
on the market. With them, “what
you see on the screen is close to
what you get on paper.” The first
popular program of this type on a
personal computer was MacWrite,
although a similar program first
appeared on Xerox’s “Star” work
station.

How are these second-gener¬
ation word processors different
from the rest? Well, next to desktop
publishing, these programs offer
“the works.” This includes multiple
on-screen fonts in varying point
sizes and type styles, plus the
integration of both text and
graphics in a single document. If
you know what MacWrite is like on
a Mac, then you know what you
can expect from programs like
these.

Personally though, I find this
type of program (at least for now)
to be my least liked of those
available. For me, they are too slow
and awkward for generating my
much needed “ASCII text files,”
while not being nearly as powerful
as true desktop publishing pro¬
grams to fulfill my ultimate format¬
ting needs. Thus, my own needs
fall mostly at the extremes. But if
you don’t want to get involved with
the more advanced publishing pro¬
grams, this is probably what you’re
looking for. Some examples are:

MacWrite. Use this Macintosh
program with the “Magic Sac” to
discover what this is all about.

Microsoft Write: Supports
multiple, on-screen GDOS fonts
but doesn’t have graphic integration
capabilities.

Word Up!: This program
comes closest to desktop publish¬
ing programs by supporting both
on-screen GDOS fonts and in¬
tegrated graphics.

The Next Generation

The upcoming “third-gener¬
ation” word processors will look
more like desktop publishing pro¬
grams, and will use artificial intelli¬
gence. However, faster computers
with higher resolution screens and
other now-expensive features will
be required to Keep up with all this
advanced software. For now, Atari’s
new Mega computers will be at the
forefront of these new word pro¬
cessors for the "next generation.”

DS/DD DISKS

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$1.02 EACH
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( 915 ) 598-1048

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 29

STARTING

BLOCK

by Richard Gunter

Managing Y our

Hard Drive

Keeping track of things is a
problem that some of us, the
naturally disorganized, and the pack
rats of the world, never really solve.
A temporary solution is to move—
especially to a smaller house. Grand
opportunity to throw things out...

Life’s not a lot different with a
hard disk drive hooked to the home
computer. Sure, it holds buckets of
stuff, but it gets cluttered pretty
quickly.

Before long, files that ought to
be together, aren’t; while the ones
that are, turn out to be the wrong
ones. Folders seem to reproduce,
when we aren’t looking, in wild and
mysterious ways. Multiple copies of
the same file proliferate. We find
multiple versions of a file, and won¬
der which is which. Data files and
programs get mixed up in a digital
smorgasbord.

Life really gets exciting when an
upgrade to our favorite word pro¬
cessor arrives and we eagerly install
it, only to find that the folder we
erased contained all our letters!

Sound familiar? This kind of
situation is the NORM! But it needn’t
be. There are some things that can
be done to keep that hard drive
from becoming a pain in the ana¬
tomy. It will take some work and
some planning, but it’s worth it.

Before we dive in, we need to
know a bit about Atari’s file
management system: what folders
and partitions and pathnames are
about. We won’t get very technical,
so don’t panic.

Partitions

Atari file management is pat¬
terned after MS-DOS. That’s one
reason we can exchange floppies
with our less enlightened friends. It’s
also an explanation for partitions.

Seems that when MS-DOS was

originally designed, nobody anti¬
cipated storage devices larger than
32MB. When the need arose, the
partition was born. The idea was to
logically divide the
hard drive into multi¬
ple sections, each of
which was to be trea¬
ted as though it were
a separate disk drive.

TOS follows a similar
pattern, but imposes
a smaller limit on par¬
tition size—16MB.

Folders and
Directories

On the ST, the
terms folder and
directory are
synonymous. The file cabinet and
folder icons on the desktop are
appropriate. A file cabinet (drive,
partition) can contain one or more
folders, into which we can put files.
We can even put folders inside of
other folders.

The folder and file relationship
can be represented pictorially as a
tree-like diagram (Figure 1), resem¬
bling a corporate organization chart.
At the Chief Executive’s spot,
there’s a box labelled “ROOT.” This
is the root directory of the partition
—its contents are revealed by dou¬
ble-clicking on the drive
icon at the desktop.

The root directory
contains a stack of fol¬
ders and a collection of
files. Each folder con¬
tains other folders and
files, until we eventually
get to a level where
there are no more fol¬
ders.

Simple. Elegant.

Higher level folders can
be used for broad

groupings of data; lower levels, for
the more narrowly defined cate¬
gories.

[ R O O T|

Pathnames and Item
Selectors

Stuffing files into folders may
keep us occupied for awhile, but
sooner or later, we’ll want to do
something with them. This means
running a program, and we need a
way to tell the application which file
to use. ST applications usually
handle this in one of two different
ways: by asking the user to type a
pathname, or by using the Item
Selector.

In the first case, the prpgram
opens a dialogue box like the one in

Desk File View

Options

FlolmiSK

FLO^^ISK

E:\PIC-UTIL\ III!!

8

D:\

228785 bytes used in 18 it

sns

0 bytes used in 18 itens.

IhGSHOU PRG
PICSH7 PRG
SHUGIF PRG

29471

48638

9966

18756

5375

8898

866

18073

1964

munm

841

JL

8 BBSLIBS

8 CISDOCS

8 DATA

8 FLASI
8 LASEI
8 MEG#
8 PHASi
8 PUBL1
8 VIP

8 UP

OPEN APPLICATION

Nane; DSLIDE .TIP

E:\P1CTUrIs\DEGAS\BEE . PIl[__

1 Cancel 1

X

i m -

1$

J L

l

A

m

m Jm

i

5 y

° y

\°y \°W

i

i

HARD DISH

HARD DISH

HARD DISK HifiO DISH

TRftSH

Figure 2. A Dialogure Box

Figure 1. The Directory Tree

Page 30

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

Figure 2. Imagine that we know a
file is located in a particular folder
somewhere in the directory tree.
Starting at that file, we trace our way
upward toward the root directory. By
keeping track of the folders we pass
through, we can write down the
complete pathname for that file, and
that’s what we type on the Parame¬
ters line. For instance:

E:\PICTURES\DEGAS\BEE.PI1

This says that on drive E: there
is a folder named PICTURES, con¬
taining another folder named
DEGAS. Inside that folder is the file
BEE.PI1, which happens to be a
Degas format picture file. A partial
pathname, such as

E:\PICTURES\DEGAS\
doesn’t point to a particular picture,
but rather to the folder containing
my collection of Degas pictures.

The second method is the Item
Selector. Using the mouse, one
points and clicks to open folders
until the desired file is found, then
clicks on it (Figure 3).

Defaults

Many applications programs
have a setup (sometimes called an
install or configuration) feature,
which allows the user to specify a
partial pathname pointing to the fol¬
der containing the data. This infor¬
mation is saved so the program can
use it on subsequent runs. Basically,
this means that we can arrange our
data files wherever we wish, and tell
the application how to adjust to that
arrangement.

Some programs, like Word Per¬
fect, let you specify several different
default paths: dictionary, thesaurus,
and document files don’t have to be
in the same folder as the program;
each type of data can be in a
different folder.

Now that we have the basics of
partitions, folders, and pathnames
under our hats, we can get on with
some ideas for organizing our hard
drive. Some of the following material
was adapted from The Hard Disk
Companion, by Norton and Jour-
dain. This book contains a wealth of
information about using hard drives.

It’s a worthy addition to your com¬
puter books library, even though it’s
strongly oriented toward the IBM PC
community.

ITEM SELECTOR

Directors:

E:\PICTURESADEGASMM

ft! #.*

Eiiiiii

ART .PCI

BLAcKHuL.TnV \
BUBOl .PI1 ^

CHEETA .PCI
CIRCUS .PCI
COUGAR .PI1

C0UHTACH.PC2
COVOTE ,PI1

7

Selection: ,
BEE .PIl|

I Mi "I

|_CancelJ

Figure 3. The Item Selector

Put Partitions to Work

Since each partition has its own
root directory, we can make them
work for us. By using multiple parti¬
tions of different sizes for our
broadest categories of data, we can
cut our total organization into smal¬
ler, more manageable pieces.

For example, we might have
systems stuff on Drive C:, telecom¬
munications on Drive D:, art pro¬
grams and pictures on E:, and so
on. If you’re into programming, it
might be a good idea to reserve a
whole partition for your compiler
and code files; you might be a little
less likely to wipe out other things
when your latest programming effort
fails.

Unless you have a reai/y large
drive, you’ll probably find that set¬
ting up too many partitions gets
counterproductive; try to find the
minimum number that meets your
needs, while allowing enough room
to be useful. On a 30MB drive, that’s
probably going to be around four or
five partitions.

Reserve Drive C:

The are some special consider¬
ations for Drive C:. For autobooting,
C: must be the “boot drive”, and
certain things have to be located
here. The AUTO folder. Desk acces¬
sories. The DESKTOP.INF file. Any
setup/configuration files used by

desk accessories and autorun pro¬
grams also have to be on this drive.

A certain amount of clutter is
inevitable on Drive C:, since a num¬
ber of essential files have to reside
in its root directory. Avoid putting
loose files in this root directory. It’s a
good idea to reserve Drive C: for
“systems” files and utilities.

Prune the Tree

Some users get carried away on
first learning about the folders within
folders business, creating elaborate
directories of many levels. This
causes more trouble than it's worth.

Moving around in a complex
directory structure means a lot of
mouse clicks at best. Pathnames
can get lengthy, often too long to fit
in most dialogue boxes. Besides,
dialogue boxes can be pretty unfor¬
giving. One error in a long path¬
name, and you may be looking at
the desktop.

It’s much better to spread things
out. Create more folders at the root
level, and avoid allowing the direc¬
tory to get too deep. Two or three
levels are adequate for most pur¬
poses. The main thing is to keep the
directory tree wide and shallow.

Small is Better

A lot of small folders is generally
better than a few large ones. It’s
usually easier to find what you’re
looking for, and directory windows
are rather more manageable.

Watch out for the “40-folder
limit” problem. Get a copy of
FOLDRXXX, and install it in your
AUTO folder.

Folder Names

Short folder names and shallow
directories lead to shorter path¬
names, with a better chance of fit¬
ting into those dialogue boxes. Do
try to keep the names mnemonic,
though. In making up folder names,
try to think up short abbreviations
that suggest what they’re for. UTIL is
a pretty obvious short version of
UTILITIES, but COMM could be
short for COMMON or COMMUNI¬
CATIONS.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 31

Don’t use the same names for
folders as for files. It’ll work, but it’s
too confusing. It’s just as easy to
use a different name.

Similarly, avoid using extensions
on folder names. DOCS.TXT is a
perfectly valid folder name, but
doesn’t jog the memory any better
than DOCS, and it makes for longer
pathnames. If you use the “display
as text” option for desktop windows,
the missing extension and the spe¬
cial character that TOS displays with
the folder name combine to make
folders stand out pretty vividly. Take
another look at the windows in the
background of Figure 2.

Make a Toolbox

You’ll probably find yourself
using several utility programs quite a
bit. Since utilities can be viewed as
“systems” stuff, we might as well
collect them in one or more folders
on Drive C:. I keep most of my
utilities in two folders, C:\DISK\, and
C:\FILE\. This places my most-used
utilities just a double click away.

Hide Dangerous Toys

Some programs, like sharp
knives, are dangerous. Perhaps the
deadliest are the hard drive utilities.
Supra’s SUPUTL program, for
example, can wipe out everything
on a partition in less time than it
takes to say, “Oops!”

Bury the dangerous programs in
a relatively deep level of some
directory, or isolate them in a folder
of their own, where they can’t be
executed accidentally. Some people
keep such things on floppy disks—
just to make them harder to reach.
Not a bad idea.

Eliminate the Irrelevant

When installing applications and
utilities on the hard drive, consider
whether all those files are needed.
For example, resource (.RSC) files
for monochrome monitors are pretty
useless if you have a color system.
Likewise, tutorials and examples
aren’t necessary once you’re fin¬
ished with them. And do you really

need to keep all those documen¬
tation files on the hard drive?

While you’re working on a pro¬
ject, it’s a good idea to retain pre¬
vious versions of your work, just in
case you need to backtrack. Once
the project is finished, these early
versions quickly become useless.
As soon you’re done, make it a
point to clean up. Get rid of detritus
as soon as you’re sure that’s what it
is. For example, as soon as I ship
this column off to Our Editor, the
early drafts are going in the bit
bucket.

Periodic Housecleaning

-Even with a good disk organi¬
zation, files will tend to accumulate.
You’ll need to take a little trip
around the hard drive once in a
while to make sure everything is
under control.

Remember: the amount of data
expands to fill all available storage
space. Somewhere along the way,
the stuff that is least often used will
just have to be jettisoned or moved
to floppies—with hope that we can
find it if we do need it later.

Two Directory Structures

Figure 4 illustrates a commonly-
used directory structure, even
among pretty sophisticated users. At
level one, we have a folder for each
of our applications. (I’ve shown only
two—a word processor and a
spreadsheet). In the WP folder, we
place the programs and other
essential files they
need, just as the in¬
stallation instructions
told us. We also create
a Data folder here.

Same for the Spread¬
sheet program. In the
WP data folder are all
our word processing
documents; in the
Spreadsheet data
folder, all our work¬
sheets.

But wait. We may
be working on several
projects at one time.

With this organization,

all the documents for several pro¬
jects are stored in one folder, and
the spreadsheets for the same pro¬
jects are in another. There’s no sin¬
gle place where all the data for a
given project is collected. This
structure emphasizes applications at
the expense of the data.

What’s the most important thing
on your disk? Your data. NOT the
programs you bought. That being
the case, why not let your directory
structure reflect that emphasis
explicitly?

Now check out Figure 5. This is
one of the best ideas in The Hard
Disk Companion. It’s also one of the
best ideas I’ve seen anywhere. As
before, each applications program
has its own folder. Now, though,
we’ve created a single folder for
each project. All the Project 1
material is stored in one folder:
artwork, DTP files, word processing
documents, spreadsheets, notes,
etc. There’s no need to wonder
whether there’s a spreadsheet for
the project; if so, it’s there. When
Project 1 is finished, there’s only
one folder to clean up.

Norton and Jourdain take this
idea a step further by suggesting
that a new folder be created at level
one of the directory. In that folder,
put the applications folders. This
shifts the applications one level
lower in the tree, and makes the
data emphasis even more graphic. I
don’t recommend doing this on an
ST, for two reasons. Some ST appli—

Figure 4. A Common Structure

Page 32

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

cations won’t run unless their folder
is in a root directory. Second, in¬
stallation procedures for ST applica¬
tions tend to be a bit more auto¬
mated than those for PCs, and it
could be a lot more difficult to get
them installed at a lower level and
working properly.

A Word on Backups

A complete hard disk manage¬
ment strategy includes a backup
policy, so let’s look at this issue
briefly. One question that comes up
early in the game is this: To back up
everything, or not? There are two
schools of thought on this subject.

Some people periodically back
up all files on the disk. Others back
up data files only. Rationale for the
latter is that, should something go
wrong, the applications can be re¬
installed. After all, we still have the
original disks, and we did duplicate
them like the manual said, didn’t
we?

Both philosophies have merit,
and I’m not strongly in either camp.
At the moment, I’m backing up
everything because the TURTLE
program is easiest to use that way.

You should do a full backup (of
data or everything, as you choose),
on the order of once a month. In
between, do an incremental backup
of whatever is new or changed
since the last one. You’ll have to
judge for yourself how often to do
that. Let paranoia be your guide.

I’d recommend taking an incre¬

mental backup once or twice a
week. With really important data,
any time I make a change that
would be hard to reproduce, I’ll
usually make an extra backup of just
that data.

Take another look at Figure 5.
All that’s needed to back up a
project is to back up one folder.

There’s another variation on this
directory structure that you might
want to consider. If the project fol¬
ders were moved one level lower, to
a DATA folder, a data-only backup
procedure might be just a little bit
more convenient. On the other
hand, visibility of the data would be
diminished.

Fighting Fragmentation

Fragmentation is a performance
killer that occurs when files get
chopped into pieces and stored at
scattered locations on the disk.

TOS keeps track of the sectors
available for new files (“free” sec¬
tors) as well as those that are
already committed to files. When an
old file is erased, the sectors it
formerly occupied are added to the
“free” pool. New files get their
space allocated from this pool.

Trouble is, space is allocated a
little at a time, starting at the begin¬
ning of the “free” pool. Both the
“free” pool and files eventually get
chopped up. The situation always
gets worse, with performance gra¬
dually degrading until the whole
system slows to a crawl.

In addition to getting a good
backup program, you should con¬
sider a special utility called a
“defragger.”

A defragger romps through an
entire partition, rearranging both
files and free space to put every¬
thing back in proper order. Because
what these programs do to the disk
is rather drastic, do your defragging
when you do a full backup. Do the
backup first...

Final Thoughts

We’ve covered a lot of ground,
but none of the concepts are hard
to handle. In fact, everything we’ve
discussed can be wrapped up in
four sentences:

-/ Lay out a prudent directory
structure, and don’t be afraid to
adjust till it works right.

«/ Do regular housecleaning.

■J Establish a routine backup and
defragging plan.

■J Don’t take silly risks with your
data.

That’s all for this time. Happy
computing!

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April 1989

Current Notes

Page 33

The Most Eligible
ST Bachelors

By: Da ve Small

Copyright 1989

You see, it’s April, the month of
romance. It’s also April, as in April 1.
Time for a slightly tacky column,
written in the best Cosmopolitan
mold.

We’ve got our main topic to
cover here, a little Spectre gossip,
and so forth. On with it!

Loss Of Programmers

Over the last two years, we’ve
lost many of the best ST program¬
mers to other computers. We’ve got
to get them back developing soft¬
ware for the ST.

I consulted with my wife, who is
rather practical in these matters, and
she said, “The only way to get them
back is to appeal to them in a dif¬
ferent manner.” I asked her what
that might be; her reply was a smol-
dering-glance-over-the-shoulder.

I got the message.

She reminded me of a long-ago
column on “Why don’t women like
computers?” for Current Notes. I got
some fairly heated mail for that,
from women who DO like com¬
puters.

Here the best former ST pro¬
grammers I know of, and hang out
with, are single men, and are look¬
ing, but haven’t found anyone.

HmmMMMMMmmm, I said to
myself. There are women who do
like ST’s. And there are these elig¬
ible bachelors. HmmmMMMMmmm.
Perhaps we can set them up with
people who are interested in ST’s,
and thus get them back into the ST
world.

An Opportunity

So here’s your chance. Two
eligible former-ST bachelors.

They’re bright. They’re creative.
They write the programs the rest of

us use. They have real live person¬
alities, and are fun to be around.
They’re good looking. And they’re
not geeks, either; the worst I’ll say
of them is that they’ve worked so
hard at computers that they don’t
often find time to meet anyone.
(This is an occupational malady not
limited to computers.)

Sandy describes both of them
as a “prize catch,” whatever that
means. (I never did understand
some of her phrases. She says she
means to keep it that way.)

I’ll describe them. The rest is up
to you. If you’re interested, send a
letter to the address at the end of
the column, and I’ll forward it along
appropriately. Naturally, I won’t give
out their true address, unless you
bribe me. Call for credit terms.

Naturally, this is sexist in a way,
but I’ve not yet met any eligible
young female programmers who are
looking; but hey, if you are, drop me
a line, and the next column could
be about you...

Dan Moore

What do you look for in a guy?
If you want someone that’s soft
spoken, sincere, highly intelligent,
able to discuss world events and
science fiction, and you don’t mind
a beard, you’ve got Dan Moore.
Note: it is part of Dan’s and my
relationship that I tease him about
his beard.

Dan’s one of the best program¬
mers I’ve ever met. The only reason
I don’t call him the “best” is he’s so
far ahead of me that I don’t know if
he really is, in that group; could be
one of his associates is. In any
event, the peer group he's in is
tops.

Dan wrote Paperdip and Syn-
FUe for the 8-bit Atari machines,
which were state-of-the-art. He did
Paperdip Elite for the ST, and it got

caught in the foldup of Batteries In¬
cluded, alas; I’ve seen it and helped
test it, and it was spectacular.

Dan and I frequently write col¬
umns for magazines, chiefly START.
We’re the people that unleashed the
Twister disk format on the world,
Meg-a-minute backup, and even
the Amazing MouseTrap. Dan does
the coding; I do the writing; we both
contribute ideas. Good synergy
there.

Dan’s got a sense of humor that
mixes well with mine. We both enjoy
Bloom County cartoons and T-
shirts. We both agree that Star Trek:
The New Generation is an atrocity.
We both like to program to Pink
Floyd. What more can you ask for?
Check out our comments to one
another in the Twister source code;
as I recall, I was begging Dan to
shave off his beard, and noting his
resemblance to Fidel Castro with it...
I’ll let you look up his comments
yourself. (Really, Dan. What about
Brooke Shields?)

Dan isn’t one of the single¬
interest people you often find in
computerland. For instance, he’s
proficient with weapons. A few
months ago we went and tore up
targets with a fully automatic H&K
machine gun. I know, I know, some
of you out there don’t like guns'or
anything associated with them; Dan
and I happen to, as a hobby and
skill (target shooting is really quite a
skill, taking years of practice to per¬
fect).

Dan’s also got himself a new
4-wheel drive to get up into the
mountains with, knows the wines of
Texas (incredible sounding, but true;
Texas is winning all sorts of awards
with its wines), and has watched me
drink myself under the table on
several occasions and not reminded
me about them. Once he even took
me out so I could talk with him

Page 34

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

about troubles I was having with
Sandy, and he watched me drinking
Zombies all evening—and poured
me home.

He’s alright.

Dan’s around 29 years old.
While he isn’t officially college
degreed, that didn’t prevent AT&T
from recognizing his talent at pro¬
gramming, and hiring him.

This is very unusual for AT&T
and reflects highly on Dan. Dan
grew up in Texas but resides here in
Colorful Colorado these days, just a
couple of miles from where I now
live. (He resided within a rock-throw
distance of me when we were rent¬
ing; I tell you, some of the coinci¬
dences involved in the Magic Sac /
Spectre development are eerie.) Did
I mention that Mark Baldin, who
authored Empire (the game) for the
ST, lives just a hop and a skip away,
too? (I was going to, but the column
was running a bit long, and I had to
get in at least two bachelors. Sorry,
Mark; another year of loneliness for
ya.)

Since leaving the ST world, and
selling me all his old equipment (I
need it for the Spectre), Dan now
lives in the world of ultra-speed
UNIX mainframes, laser printers,
connections to other machines, and
so forth. Yet he retains his ST
knowledge (he comes over and
writes stuff with me all the time).

There still might be time to save
him for the ST world. Come on,
someone, go for it.

Tom Hudson

Tom’s a tall, pleasant rowdy with
a very good smile.

Tom wrote Degas ; Degas E/ite ,
CAD-3D : and a zillion other CAD
packages for the ST, and probably
fifty other significant programs I’m
missing. He’s also done some neat
stuff for START—ray tracing, for in¬
stance. He seems to always be
doing something interesting.

He also did a fine article on the
realities of free-lancing, and how
hard it could be. I really related to
that.

Last time Tom dropped by, he,
Sandy and I talked until 3 AM about

various subjects. Roger Rabbit.
Films. Cartoons. Star Trek and why
the Next Generation was so bad. It
was one of those conversations you
get into that has a quick interchange
of ideas, that leaves you intellec¬
tually satisfied. What also was neat
about it was something I have a
hard time explaining. Tom is one of
those people that you tell half a
sentence too, and he can mentally
fill in the rest; he is quick and bright.

So part of the conversation
went on in these half-sentences,
which sped everything up. Those
conversations only happen when
you’re talking with someone who’s
really tuned into your wavelength.

A rowdy? Well, let’s see. Who
else gets their picture into START
magazine with scuba gear on, sitting
on the bottom of a pool, program¬
ming an ST? Not bad! (Last thing I
did to START was to designate
Dungeon Master as my favorite pro¬
gram in every category—database,
word processor, game, spread¬
sheet—in their Contributing Editor’s
area. Tom and I have a running
contest to see who can pull what
prank on magazines.)

I think we’re tied at the moment;

I got my picture onto Mac- Week’s
front cover with a .50 cal ammo belt
draped over my shoulders and a
stern expression. (Take that, you
Apple lawyers). But Tom at the bot¬
tom of the pool evened that out. I’ve
been trying to think of something
new for a long time now.

Alas, Tom has been seduced
away into the world of 386
machines, VGA cards, and the like:
IBM clones. I’m not quite sure what
he’s doing there, but I’m sure he’s
having fun.

Tom has an interesting video of
himself and friends shooting up his
old video recorder with several
(legal) automatic weapons. That’s
my sorta person, willing to have fun
in an unpretentious manner. (When
he dropped by here in Denver, I
showed him my ... dare I say it?
automatic BB gun, and we spent
time shooting the tops off coke bot¬
tles, and did a little impromptu 4th
of July display in my backyard—

home mixed, of course. Worked
well.)

I’m not certain of Tom’s age; I
think he’s old, like me (30). And he
likes dogs.

Random Gossip

Well, that covers our tacky
Bachelor’s area for this month.
Aren’t you glad April only comes
once a year?

On to our Random Gossip.

Spectre 1.9 is finally done.
Spectre 1.9 happened when I made
a bunch of bug fixes to Spectre 1.75
that people wanted—the arrow keys
work as Mac arrow keys, the flash¬
ing “A” eject bug was cured, and so
forth. But by the time these bug
fixes were done, new and exciting
stuff was happening—sound was
working! Yep, the ST went “Bong!”
like a Mac does on powerup; it
“beep”ed like a Mac; it even went
so far as to play digitized Mac
sounds. These, widely available on
the BBS’s, PD libraries, and so forth,
typically wire the Mac playing a
given sound to a given event—say,
the Star Trek “beaming up” sound is
played when you insert a disk into
the Mac.

And yes, I know you can’t wait
to ask. The sounds for MacPIaymate
now work. To which my only com¬
ment is,

“What have we begun?”

— Tom Scholz

Dan came over and whipped
through an SLM-804 laser printer
driver, which emulated an MX-80.
Thus, you can now get direct prints
of stuff to the SLM-804—MacPaint
pictures, text, and so on. (And'the
SLM would no longer hang if you
moved the mouse while it was
printing, another bug fix.) Nor did he
stop with the MX-80, at its 72 dpi;
he’s just got the LQ driver in, and is
going for a 360 x 360 dpi driver
next.

We came out with a 20-page
newsletter last week (March 6 or so)
covering all this. We pointed out that
Spectre 2.0 wasn’t ready yet, but if
you wanted all the bug fixes, plus
beta-test versions of the Sound and

(Continued on Page 37)

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 35

THE GRAPHIC ARTS ♦ Steve Marshall

I feel like I’ve just walked into a
huge room, filled with unfamiliar but
friendly faces. I’m wearing one of
those sticky name tags pasted over
my shirt pocket (with my name
“Steve” scrawled in red marker) and
a look of excitement mixed with
apprehension is working its way
across my face. I don’t know you
and you don’t know me. Nothing to
do except plunge in and start shak¬
ing hands.

So here I am, one of Joe
Waters’ new recruits, all set to pen a
monthly column for Current Notes
that will focus on the very broad
subject of computer graphics. Since
this is going to be a one-sided
conversation for awhile, let me start
by telling you a little about myself.
And in so doing, I think you will see
where this column will be going and
where I may be of help to you.

I’m going to skip all of the really
interesting fluff like my age, my
pets’ names and how many kids I
have, and get right down to the
basics. First, and foremost, I am an
artist. I was one of those lucky few
who knew what I wanted to do in life
from the time I was in fourth grade
and the teachers made such a fuss
over my drawings. I’ve worked as a
free-lance illustrator, owned my
own art gallery and worked over the
years in advertising and television.
For the past 5 years I’ve been in¬
volved in the new and rapidly
expanding field of computer gra¬
phics and currently have a job that
many people would envy; I spend
most of my working day creating
computer graphics on an Atari ST.

I suppose I have video games
to thank for my new career. Like
many others, I was intrigued by the
early video games with their colorful
graphics and animated characters. I
have always been fascinated with
animation and one of my early
dreams was to work for Walt Disney
creating his classic animated films. I
became equally fascinated with the

video games. The idea that you
could actually control a moving
character on a television screen was
intriguing, and the animation, while
crude, showed the tremendous
potential of computers in creating
cartoon-like movement.

But I wasn’t content to just play
video games. I wanted to learn how
to create them myself. I wanted to
explore this exciting new medium
that many thought childish or a
passing fad, and see if there might
be a future in it for me. So I went
out and bought an Atari 800. (This
was back in 1983 when an Atari
8-bit system was king of the hill and
cost as much as a Mega2.) Well, I
spent all my spare time (when I
wasn’t playing games) learning to
draw with Micropainter and the
Koalapad, and teaching myself to
program in Basic. Shortly after that,
through a bit of serendipity, I found
myself creating Atari graphics for
the pilot project of an interactive
communications system called
PIRCS (an acronym for Personal In-
Room Communication System).

The PIRCS system was develo¬
ped for the hotel industry as a
means of improving guest services
and establishing new areas for
revenue for the hotel. PIRCS is an
interactive system which allows the
guest to not only receive information
but request specific information
through the hotel television. This is
accomplished through a high¬
speed two-way communications
network utilizing the latest in com¬
puter and video technology. In
addition to viewing standard tele¬
vision fare, the PIRCS guest can set
a wakeup call, order Room Service,
read messages or checkout from his
room. He can also play video
games, purchase pay movies, or
access a giant information database
with information on local res¬
taurants, entertainment, sporting
and leisure activities and transpor¬
tation. All of this is accomplished

through the hotel television set
using a standard remote control
device. As you might suspect, this is
no ordinary television. In fact, the
television (which is actually quite
ordinary) is controlled by a black
box about the size of a portable
VCR. This box contains custom
electronics centered around a Z-80
microprocessor, and an Atari 65XE
board. The Z-80 communicates with
a centrally located head-end com¬
puter (typically an NCR Tower),
while the Atari displays the com¬
puter generated text and graphics.
In essence, the Atari sees the main
computer as a giant disk drive, while
the Z-80 controls the Atari, telling it
what to display and “pressing its
keys” on behalf of the user. In its
prototype days, PIRCS made use of
an Atari 400 (remember those?)
upgraded to 16K of RAM.

Its five years later and PIRCS is
now an established product with
systems aboard cruise ships and in
prestigious hotels in the U.S. and
Canada, including the new Grand
Floridian Resort at Walt Disney
World. And I’m still busy using my
Atari ST to create both ST and 8-bit
graphics for client systems and to
do everything from technical draw¬
ings to marketing presentations. I
rely on the ST and great Atari soft¬
ware like DEGAS Elite, Easy Draw,
Publishing Partner, CAD-3D, Cyber
Paint, Laser C and Flash to allqw my
one-man graphics department to
not only keep up with the demands
of our customers, but also enable
me to offer exciting new graphic
capabilities within the system.

In next month’s column I’ll go
into more detail on how PIRCS
works and the important role both
the Atari ST and the Atari 65XE have
in the PIRCS system that have con¬
tributed to its success in the mar¬
ketplace.

Although my job keeps me
busy, I still find some spare time to
play games (my current favorite is

Page 36

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

Dungeon Master); serve as
managing editor of NYBBLES and
BYTES, the combined newsletter
of the Phoenix, Arizona area Atari
User Groups; produce a series of
high resolution clip art disks for
desktop publishing (marketed by
Magnetic Images); work with my
friend David Lindsley writing com¬
mercial video games (our latest,
due out this spring, is called Lost
Dutchman M/he): and have fun
creating CAD-3D animations with
the great Cyber software.

As for this column, I guess I’m
here to serve as the so-called
graphics “expert.” I’ll share my
experiences and try to answer
your questions. I’ve used practi¬
cally every graphics package
available on the ST, from desktop
publishing to paint programs to
the aforementioned Cyber 3D
animation software. I’m a fairly
proficient programmer with
experience in C, Pascal and
Basic, including the new STOS
Basic. While I work primarily with
the ST, I still have my old Atari 800
and still keep up with the new
software. Over the course of this
column I’ll be reporting on the
advances in the computer gra¬
phics field in general, and Atari ST
graphics in particular, whether it
be new software, new hardware or
intriguing uses for the Atari in
business or industry.

As I've said, this has been a
one-sided conversation so far,
but I hope that will change. Please
feel free to send in your questions
and comments and I’ll do my best
to find the answers. If you use an
Atari to produce graphics in a
professional environment, please
share that information with us. I’m
sure all of us could benefit from
seeing how the Atari is being used
in the exciting and ever-expand¬
ing field of computer graphics.

Well, I’ve introduced myself
and shaken a lot of hands, and
now its time to take off this name
tag and head home. Until next
time...

SMALL WORLD (Continued from page 35.)

Laser Printer support, let us know.

1.9 is free to registered Spectre
owners.

Anyway, that’s all been keeping
me hopping, along with working on
the really quick Spectre GCR. This is
a Spectre that reads and writes Mac
disks. Just like the Translator, but
much, much faster, hopefully even
faster than the superfast native
Spectre format. But hey, all I ask is a
fast hard disk and an assembler to
steer it by; I’ve got a 68000 driving
that GCR, and that’s one awesome
processor.

Dave’s 31

By the time you read this, I’m 10
years out of college and my 21st
birthday. What a long, strange trip it’s
been. I’ve worked at many places,
and it hasn’t always been the most
positive of experiences. Working for
myself, and with my family, now, has
been. It is nice to finally have
succeeded in a big way, I’ll tell you;
there were too many years living
hand to mouth there.

Sandy, as head of the company,
is doing something she’s never done
before—and doing quite well, too. It’s
improved her confidence in herself,
and she keeps asking me-This is so
easy! Why was this so hard at Data
Pacific?

(I have no answer.)

After my last experience with a
company, it is comforting to sit down
at the breakfast table and be having a
meeting of the board of directors.

We’re finding the international
FAXes and letters to be the most fun
of all this. We hold a contest to see
who got the letter from a new place,
or a strange place—Iraq, for in¬
stance, is not a place that I would
have imagined is interested in
Spectres. But there’s this letter from
there...

dP Holiday

Barb and I, and Sandy, marked
our one year’s anniversary of exiting
from Data Pacific with a bottle of

Dorn Perignon and an afternoon off to
reminisce. That’s strong stuff. Soon,
the guitar was out, I was playing my
standard rendition of “Stairway to
Heaven” music with the lyrics to the
TV show “Gilligan’s Island”; Barb
showed us why she was in a rock
band as a singer; she’s quite good;
she cranked up the DX-7 and played
for us.

Why Dom Perignon? The letters
“dP,” of course.

I drew many conclusions during
the course of this party, and had
many mind-boggling insights, some
of which I even managed to express,
while tripping over my tongue.

I don’t remember any of them.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it, a little
April Fool’s, a little of this, a little of
that. No real crusades, no technical
information, only a little bit on
Spectre. A comfortable birthday col¬
umn for me. Hope you’ve enjoyed the
tone, and I look forward to reporting
on any reaction to the column, as
well as what Dan and Tom do. (I think
they’re going to enjoy it. I hope
they’re going to enjoy it. Tom’s a
better shot than I am.)

You know, April 12 is very close
to when the original “MacCartridge”
was unveiled at the West Coast
Computer Faire in 1986.

Happy third birthday, Mac emula¬
tor.

******

Mailing Address: (note: this is a
newer one than the 9678-B address
we used before; we’re phasing out
the 9678-B box.)

Gadgets By Small

40 West Littleton Blvd, #210-211

Littleton, Colorado 80120

If you want to have me forward a
letter to Dan or Tom, just address it to
them, in c/o Gadgets By Small, etc.
It’ll get to 'em. (And I won’t open
them!)

I look forward to both of them
getting back into the ST!

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 37

Falcon—The Game of the Year

Blazing Guns and Graphics

Review by Roger Abram

Too Much Fun!

I consider myself a relatively
mature person. However, in drafting
the opening paragraph of this
review, I found myself describing
how to locate a moving convoy of
trucks in Spectrum HoloByte’s Fal¬
con and then what it was like to
swoop down on them with guns
blazing. The sight of the trucks
being hit and blasted off the road
had to be seen to be appreciated.
Then the whole thing struck me as
somewhat demented. I mean, here
I am, a middle-aged father of three
describing how to blow up trucks!
Shouldn’t I put away my toys and
start concentrating on more adult
activities, like filling out tax forms?
Naw! It’s too much fun!

Fa/con is a truly pleasurable
F-16 Jet Fighter simulation that has
dazzling graphics, great sound, su¬
perior documentation and, most
importantly, playability. One of the
nicest features of the program is
the ability to progress in difficulty as
you learn to fly the F-16. One
frustrating aspect of Jet (sub-
LOGIC) was just how relentless and
accurate the enemy was at even
the lower levels. It was tough to
shake off missiles that were simul¬
taneously being launched by MIGs
and SAM sites.

With Rank Comes Danger

In Fa/con, you start off at First
Lieutenant where you’re virtually
indestructible and then each new
rank brings a higher level of diffi¬
culty. It is not until the third rank,
Major, that the SAM sites can fire
missiles that can hit your plane.
Even at that rank, the MIGs are only
somewhat accurate in using their
weapons. The definitive rank, Col¬
onel, will test your skills in all
aspects of the F-16.

The basic premise of Fa/con is
to complete all (or as many) mis¬
sions provided in the program
before biting the big one. The 12
missions run the gamut from target
practice on friendly soil (Milk Run)
to intercepting and destroying 4
MIGs (Grand Slam). In between
there are missions to destroy sus¬
pension bridges, a communica¬
tions center, SAM sites, enemy
headquarters, and more. Merits,
medals and ribbons are awarded
for completing missions and the
top ten pilots are saved to disk.

Weapons Galore!

To aid in your quest, the F-16
can be configured with a potpourri
of munitions: AIM-9J Sidewinder,
AIM-9L Sidewinder All Aspect,
AGM-65B Maverick, Mk 84 20001b
Low Drag Bomb, Durandal Anti-
Runway Bomb, and the M61-A1
Vulcan Internal Gun. In addition,
you can carry extra fuel tanks and
an ALQ-131 ECM Pod to jam
enemy radar. In all the ranks but
First Lieutenant, you must request
your weapons from the crew chief.
Only if the requested armaments
are available (sometimes they’re
out of stock!) will they placed on
the plane. Be forewarned, maneu¬
verability is decreased as more
weapons are mounted, so your
choices should be determined by
the type of mission you’re about to
undertake.

As you plunge deeper into
hostile territory, there are different
screens from which to view the
outside world. Of course, there’s
the main front view through the
cockpit window. Even that view,
however, can be adjusted so that
all of the instrument panel is neatly
hidden out of sight, leaving only
the Heads Up Display (HUD). This

enables most of the monitor to be
filled with the out-of-the-window
view. There are also views to the
left, right, behind, from the tower,
tracking view, and from a satellite
looking down on the action. In the
heat of battle, all of the different
views will be utilized as you strug¬
gle to monitor the activity of the
enemy.

In terms of instrumentation and
features, the F-16 is loaded with
them. The cockpit has a Heads Up
Display where the following data is
only a quick glance away: “G”
force indicator, altitude, heading,
airspeed, mach indicator, max “G”
force indicator, flight path ladder,
velocity vector, distance to target
and waypoint indicator, and direc¬
tional indicator. If you have selec¬
ted an air-to-air missile to launch
against a MIG, then the following
items also appear: discretes
(designates whether or not your
missile is armed or locked onto a
target), target designator, five mile
radar range scale, in range in¬
dicator, aiming reticle, aspect angle
indicator, distance ranging scale,
and target locator line. The HUDs
for the other types of weapons
contain variances in the items listed
above and each one is unique:

Instruments A Plenty!

The cockpit instrumentation
panel comes complete with a radar/
map screen, rpm gauge, nose
wheel/landing gear system, angle
of attack indexer/indicator, attitude
director, threat warning system,
afterburner, master caution light,
stores control panel, indicators for
flaps, wheel brakes, air brakes, auto
pilot, and stall warning alert. The
views from the left and right sides
of the cockpit also feature in¬
dicators for damage suffered by

Page 38

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

your jet, yaw, pitch, fuel, compass,
landing gear lights, and backup
airspeed gauge.

With all of the above at your
disposal, it’s easy to see why
reading the 130+ page manual is
essential for successfully control¬
ling the F-16. Well organized and
filled with illustrations, the book
goes into detail on each item or
system mentioned above. There’s
even a guide to fighter jockey
terminology at the end.

Fly & Fight

Although taking off from the
base and journeying out on a
mission is one way in which to
encounter enemy planes, Falcon
provides another method in which
you can immediately engage a MIG
for training on different air combat
maneuvers. Some exercises you
can select are the Immelmann,

scissors, break, dive loop, and
vertical loop. The maneuvers can
also be flown with the path you
are to follow literally outlined in
the sky by the use of rectangles.
Fly through a series of rectangles
to perform the maneuvers.

If you have a friend with an
ST, Amiga, or Macintosh, you can
dogfight with them using either a
null modem serial cable or Hayes
compatible modems. This fea¬
ture, as well as certain sounds/
graphics and the “Black Box”
(records your flight path), are
only available on STs with at least
one megabyte of memory.

Fa/con is a game I highly
recommend. Its graduated level
of learning permits the user to
slowly learn the many facets of
the program without being over¬
whelmed and overmatched at the
outset. All graphics, movement,
and sound are well-programmed

to produce an engrossing simula¬
tion. The only glitch in the program
is that the disk drive busy light
remains on after the software has
loaded. Although the drive isn’t
spinning, it is a nuisance. A call to
the company revealed that the pro¬
grammers were looking into it. I
was also told that they’re planning
on releasing a new mission disk
before the end of the year.

By the way, that convoy of
trucks starts rolling down the road
in the enemy quadrant that lies due
north of your base. Go get ’em!

Available from Spectrum Holo-
Byte, 2061 Challenger Drive, Ala¬
meda, CA 94501, (415) 522-1164.
Joystick optional. Color monitor
only. 1 meg needed for all features.
List price: $49.95.

Next month: Spectrum Holo-
Byte’s Orbiter, a space shuttle
simulation.

■

11

■

HI

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April 1989

Current Notes

Page 39

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

Old Wine—New Vintage
by John Barnes

VersaSoft Corp has upda¬
ted its dBMAN product with a
new release. dBMAN (/shipped
in November, not long after I
had reviewed version 4. While
previous upgrades were largely
matters of bug fixing and tun¬
ing, dBMAN V breaks new
ground, although not radically.

The progress is along the lines
of a vintner who starts out
doing table wine and then
decides to try oak barrels to
bring more subtlety and com¬
plexity to his product. Fancier
labelling can’t hurt either.

What’s New

The existence of a short
manual, “Atari ST Release Notes,”
along with the new softbound ref¬
erence documentation is a clue
that VersaSoft is serious about
supporting a wide range of
machines. The IBM and Macintosh
versions are pretty hard to track
down, though. Retailers seem to
prefer more expensive products. At
around $180, in stores, dBMAN V
for the ST is edging toward the
pricing typical of other power pro¬
ducts like Word Perfect, Superbase
Professional, and Ca/amus. Version
4 owners can upgrade for $45.

The new features that I have
found important are a brand new
report formatter, a user-selectable
command editor, a user-selectable
startup procedure, a reliable com¬
piler (a separate product), and a
more GEMish feel in certain areas.
Subsidiary features that I found less
important include an application
generator, an input forms genera¬
tor, and new security features at
the database, record, or field level.

I cannot judge whether the
stated goal of complete dBASE 111+
compatibility has been achieved,
although I have seen indications
that at least one serious (read very
expensive) accounting package will
be porting its code to the ST.

MS-DOS users should look
into this because the price of the

developer’s package (which in¬
cludes the interpreter, the com¬
piler, and the run-time engine) is
much cheaper than the alterna¬
tives.

Reports Made Easi(er)

Most current users will find the
new report generator alone to be
worth the price of the upgrade. I
find it a joy to create titles, estab¬
lish relational linkages, group
breaks, and body text with menu-
driven dialogs, help from drop¬
down menus, and full-screen
positioning of report items. Multi¬
file (relational) reporting is also
supported much better. The instant
preview feature is dynamite.
Embedded command language
operations allow much more com¬
plexity in report generation.

You must, however, be very
careful when using the report
generator because it alters your
environment in ways you might not
expect. The basic guideline is to
install your databases and index
files in the subdirectory containing
dBMAN V and its host of auxiliary
files. Those people who use
dBMAN V with floppy drives are
probably going to be unhappy.

The documentation on the
Report Writer is extensive, but it
requires careful reading and
rereading. The examples provided

by VersaSoft are a big help
here, as are the tutorials that
form a major part of the
manual.

The .FRM file that the report
writer creates looks like com¬
piled code so that the REPORT
FORM .... command runs quite
fast. It would be nice to have a
plain text version of the code
available for tweaking and as
documentation.

The New Bottle

The somewhat tweedy
looseleaf documentation has
been replaced by a nicely prin¬
ted softcover book. This may
be a form of piracy protection
because it is harder to photocopy. I
miss the looseleaf format because
it was easy to keep the book open
to a particular section without hav¬
ing to prop it open. The new book
is, however, more readable.

I have always found the text
well organized, although others
may not like the reference book
style. Important commands and
sections are arranged alphabeti¬
cally for easy lookup and there is
almost always a useful example to
highlight the command function or
syntax.

I find the index somewhat in¬
adequate because a number of
terms are missing. These include
“decimal places,” and the names
of the library functions. The split
document format can be a little
frustrating when you have to go
back and forth to find something
that is not indexed.

VersaSoft claims that they are
not greatly concerned about piracy
because no one can get anywhere
without referring to the documen¬
tation. This is certainly true. It is
also the likely reason that many
dBMAN buyers have never gotten
to first base.

Editing Made Enjoyable

In this new release, users who,
like me, do not like the tacky

Page 40

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

E-Macs style editor that dBMAN
uses for the MODIFY COMMAND
procedure can install their own
favorite. I use Tempus ; although
others might like 1st Word ox even
Word Perfect in the ASCII text
mode. Tempus should work on a
520, but you might need a 1040 or
a Mega for the others.

Make no mistake about it,
database usage beyond the most
elementary operations involves
programming. Kudos to VersaSoft
for making this as painless as
possible. This should show other
people how to play the game.

MODIFY COMMAND with a
GEM editor installed is also a rela¬
tively painless way to get to your
desk accessories from within
dBMAN.

Starting on the Right Foot

The ability to preselect a pro¬
cedure to be executed immediately
upon startup is a huge improve¬
ment, especially for those who
develop databases that others must
use. I have seen many people
freeze up completely when pre¬
sented with the CMD: prompt at
startup. You can now double-click
on dBMAN.PRG (yes, Virginia, it’s
not a .TTP program any more) and
the program can take you right to a
menu shell for your own applica¬
tions. Users who want a fully GEM-
ized version of dBMAN con simply
install the precompiled ASS-
IST.RUN program to gain access to
drop-down menus for doing
everything. Contact your local
dBMAN guru for help on this cus¬
tomization.

I find this to be a very sensible
approach to adapting a program to
the needs of its users.

Compile It and Forget It

VersaSoft calls its compiler
Greased Lightning. It is a separate
product that can only be purchased
directly from VersaSoft. I paid about
$100, but check before you buy.
The directions for using this pro¬

duct are very sketchy indeed. It is
really meant for developers who
wish to create stand-alone data¬
base products. Hi Tech Advi-
sers( 1-800-882-4310, Winter
Haven, Florida) already market a
line of business accounting pack¬
ages built on this principle. I have
also seen a point of sale applica¬
tion using compiled dBMAN. This
may be a powerful foot into the
door of the business world. Users
who do not have dBMAN will run
these applications using a run¬
time engine named GLEXE.TTP,
which is distributed free with the
applications.

I love it. The code runs fast,
and the .TTP method is well adap¬
ted to operating in a batch or
perhaps even a multitasking
environment (a subject for future
research).

The compiled code can also
be executed under the dBMAN V
interpreter. This is excellent for
procedures that are used over and
over again. This may prove to be
the best method of all for helping
people who are intimidated by
databases, but who have to use
them anyway.

The ASSIST and HELP func¬
tions are now executed as com¬
piled procedures. These are much
more compact and speedy than
they used to be.

More for Mouse Fans

Many people have shied away
from dBMAN because they did not
regard it as a GEM product. In the
sense that most GEM applications
do not require the user to do any
programming this remains true.
People who can program, though,
do have a nice set of tools to
develop applications which can
lead the mouse-oriented user
quite nicely. This should make
applications written in dBMAN
more accessible to the general
user.

The library functions for
accessing GEM functions within

applications appear to be better
integrated into the whole package
than they were in Version 4. I have
been pretty lazy on this score
because I find that setting up the
data structures for object-oriented
programming is tedious whether it
be in C, GFA Basic, FORTRAN,
Superbase Pro, or dBMAN. You
have to provide a lot of information
before you ever see a result.

This brings us back to the issue
of programming. The necessity of
understanding complex commands
(or looking them up in a book) and
correctly typing them into a com¬
mand line has long been a barrier
to the use of dBMAN. Version 3
provided ASSIST.CMD, but the
extra help provided in dBMAN V
should be most welcome.

Three new tools, an Application
Generator, a Session Generator,
and a Screen Generator, are pro¬
vided to help people get started
with creating databases, opening
them in applications, setting up
screens for input data, and output¬
ting reports. These generate pro¬
gram files in plain text that can be
edited and incorporated into other,
more complete, programs. These
may prove useful as teaching aids
for novices, but the process will still
be far from easy.

Support

The support for the product is
excellent. Bugs are continually
being fixed (although I have always
found the product to be pretty
stable). New versions within the
same level number (usually repre¬
senting bug fixes or stability
enhancements) are available by
returning your discs with $3 to
cover shipping and handling. A
fixed price schedule applies to
upgrades from one level number to
another. My experience has been
that new versions ship within a
reasonable time of their announced
appearance.

An active electronic BBS pro¬
vides current advice and personal

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 41

ATARI ST/MEGA

replies to problems. Eric Small has
been unfailingly polite and respon¬
sive on those occasions when I
have spoken to him on the phone.

Power Tools

This review is too tight a space
to go into the really fancy things
you can do with dBMAN. There is a
trick to convert DEGAS and
NEOCHROME files to dBMAN
screens, but I have not yet figured
out how (or why) to use it. Text
editing in an external file is pretty

easy if you use the RUN .

command to invoke your word
processor. Indeed, you can do
some very complicated things with
the RUN command, especially if
you use dBMAN to generate the
shell scripts to carry out batch
processing.

A multiuser version is available
(for $500) for people who need to
do distributed database work in
real time. I am not at all clear on
how this works because it must run
on some sort of network.

Only a very few CURRENT
NOTES readers will want to avail
themselves of this much database
power, but the fact that it exists is
very important. It means that there
is a niche for the ST in serious work
environments. It means that there
are tools for developing applica¬
tions that non-programmers will
find useful in making productive
use of their machines.

Needed Improvements

I do not like the way dBMAN
handles its path assignments. If
your .DBF and .PRG paths are
altered you lose the benefit of
ASSIST, HELP, and the Report
Writer. This can be very annoying
when you have many databases on
a variety of hard drive partitions. I
think they need to provide some¬
thing better, perhaps with special
entries in the configuration file. The
Report Writer also messes up your
environment when it is running and

I think this is bad.

Field locking should be made
simpler for single users, because
this can provide an important mea¬
sure of security for data entry
applications. The business of set¬
ting up a password table for a
database is too complex, the way
things stand now.

Conclusion

Despite its obvious strengths
dBMAN is not the tool of choice for
very many garden variety Atari
users. By and large these people
have not discovered relational
database technology at all. Almost
everyone I talk to gets by with a
single list. Furthermore, program¬
mers are a very scarce breed.

People have asked how I com¬
pare dBMAN with Superbase.
dBMAN V is such an attractive
enough product that I have trouble
getting my juices up to program in
Superbase. If the Superbase
people could come up with a

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CN REVIEW

better editing system and if their
language system were not so obs¬
cure the situation might well be
reversed. I give dBMAN the edge
on raw, businesslike power and
Superbase the edge in graphic and
text applications. Superbase pro¬
bably gets the edge on user frien¬
dliness for simple work. Some if its
features get in the way after a while
and it definitely falls behind when it
comes time to build a fully integra¬
ted application.

My first Atari 1040 ST was
bought 2 1/2 years ago largely on
the strength of its ability to do
relational database management
and its ability to run FORTRAN
programs. The VersaSoft people
gave me a good product to begin
with and they have continued to
support it and make it better over
the years. What more could anyone
ask?

VersaSoft Corp, P.O. Box 36078,
San Jose, CA 95168. Technical
support BBS: (408)723-9047.

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Atari ST MIDI Solutions

Page 42

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

CN REVIEW

ATARI ST/MEGA

Review by Bill Moes

Math flashcards. Memories of a teacher holding
the cards up before a class. Struggles with the
tougher math facts. Now, what is 7X8, anyway?

It’s something we’ve all been through. Important.
Drill is usually necessary. And now, an ST software
program provides children with that drill in basic math
facts: Flash Cards.

The program is easily used and very direct (see
screen illustration above). First, set one of the
options. Then choose the math operation and level.

With a color monitor, one option shows special
effects. With special effects, each correct response
will bring on a NeoChrome picture (“Well Done!”,
etc.). And the flash from color cycling animation may
be shown. This, of course, greatly slows everything
down, but beginners may enjoy the effect. You can
include your own NeoChrome illustrations for a more
personal display.

With a monochrome
monitor, this special
effects feature is not avail¬
able.

Instead of special
effects, perhaps a timer.
Set the timer to a number
of seconds. Solve as many
as possible. Hurry! When the time is up, the screen
will show the number of correct/incorrect problems.

It’s also possible to have neither of these two
options. Just solve the problems. No flash. No dash.

Option settings can be saved as defaults. These
settings include length for the timer, the drive/folder
for special effect pictures, and the current option
selected.

Options

Special Effects

] Tiner
No Options

Save Settings

Multiply

Addition and subtraction
each offer five levels of prob¬
lems. The lower levels offer
numbers up to five or 10. The
highest level challenges with
numbers up to 50.

Multiplication and division
have each set of facts available
separately. Everything up
through the the 12’s will be
shown for each set of facts. For
example, the "3 Times" will have
everything from 3X0 through
3X12. Not all school classes
deal with the 10’s, 11’s, and
12’s, but a little extra challenge
probably won’t hurt much. It’s
also possible to have all fact
families (0 - 12) combined for a
thorough test. It’s not possible,
however, to select smaller groupings of facts: you
can’t try just the 6X? - 9X? fact families.

Key in answers using the ST’s keypad. Three
chances are given for a correct
response. Unfortunately, it is
necessary to press <ESC> to
erase an incorrect answer. It’s
too bad that the program
doesn’t simply erase the wrong
answer automatically.

My eight-year-old
daughter, fighting her way
through subtraction facts,
enjoyed the program. She
appreciated the positive com¬
ments after a correct answer
and preferred using no options,
although I think the timer can
be a definite help in building speed and competence.

Flash Cards, written by Ray Grohowski and not
copy protected, is available from the author for $9.95
plus $1.00 p&h. Grohowski’s stated goal is to provide
worthwhile software in the gap between public
domain and $40 programs.

Here is a clean program offering help in a most
important learning area. Families with young children
... elementary classrooms: many could find great use
for F/ash Cards.

[Ray Grohowski, 3403
West MUham, Portage, Ml
49002]

1

2

3

4

5
f>

7

8
9

10

11

12

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Tines

Oil

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 43

r

ST TOOLBOX ♦ J. Andrzej Wrotniak

Prospero C Compiler

A Solid Extension to the Prospero Language Family

Prospero Software from Eng¬
land is a unique contender on the
Atari ST language market: the only
house offering a familyo\ high-level
languages for our machine. Last
year they introduced Versions 2 of
their FORTRAN and Pascal com¬
pilers, both very well implemented,
and now they are rounding out their
language family with a brand new C
compiler.

Does anybody need another C
on the ST? The market is already
quite crowded here: at least six
different implementations, with two
of them (Laser and Mark Williams)
sharing most of the popularity—
and justly so. Anybody coming up
with a new C compiler has to offer
something deserving attention if
they want to give the competition a
run for our money.

So what is Prospero’s trump
card in this game? What makes
them think they will make it on this
market? Three main points may (but
do not have to) make this a C
compiler of choice for many Atari ST
programmers.

1. Overall quality of the
software and documentation.

Prospero Pascal and FORTRAN
compilers are, I think, the best-
behaved ones for our machine, and
in a month or so of using Pro¬
spero C I still have yet to encounter
any problem. The Prospero name is
already a good recommendation for
a product. What is especially nice
here, however, is that we do not
have to wait for Version 2 or 3
before we can really enjoy using it.
This time they hit it right in the
center (or very close to it) with
Version 1, a not-so-common thing
in the ST world.

2. Two-dimensional com¬
patibility of their languages. It is

not enough to put the same label on
three different compilers and talk
about a language family. In many
situations the possibility of calling
from a program written in one
language, procedures written in
another, may be quite valuable, and
this is possible with the Prospero
system. On the other hand, all their
compilers work also on PC-com¬
patible machines (under PC-GEM).
So, as long as your code is kosher,
portability is (in most cases, at least)
not an issue.

3. ANSI compatibility. Many
C compilers have useful extensions
to the original Ritchie-Kernigan C
standard, and many of these exten¬
sions were included into the (draft)
ANSI standard of the C language.
Prospero C, however, is the first and
only implementation on the Atari ST
fully conforming to the standard,
and this may be a decisive factor for
many buyers. (Nb. Turbo C 1.5 and
Microsoft C 5.1 implement the ANSI
standard in the PC environment.)

If you are thinking about buying
a C compiler, should you then for¬
get about the other implementations
and buy Prospero’s? This depends
on your needs and personal pre¬
ferences; I hope this article may
help you in making the right choice.

Documentation

The four boxed volumes of
enclosed documentation look quite
impressive, indeed, totalling about
1000 pages. The first volume deals
with the programming environment,
the language standard and imple¬
mentation details; the second
describes, in alphabetical order, the

functions from enclosed C libraries;
and the remaining two deal with
GEM: AES and VDI, respectively.

The GEM volumes are very
good; almost exact copies of the
corresponding ones from Prospero
Pascal and FORTRAN packages. It
is very hard to find something bet¬
ter.

On the other hand, I am not too
enthusiastic about the alphabetical
order in which the C (Unix-like)
libraries are listed (this is exactly
why I don’t think much about the
Mark Williams C documentation).
Grouping the functions according to
the operations they perform would
be, I think, more appropriate: usually
we know what we want to do in our
program, and not the name of the
function used to do it (think about
writing a letter in Swahili having only
a Swahili-to-English dictionary).
Well, I have the same complaint
about the other C compilers, but
from Prospero I would expect
something more.

The presentation of the ANSI C
standard in the first volume is brief,
dry and formal to the point of in¬
comprehensibility. If you know the
standard quite well, you may find
this description useful as a refer¬
ence, but the job Prospero did in
this aspect on their other compilers
was much better. Again, this may be
just nit-picking on my part, as
neither Mark Williams nor Laser C
present the language standard at all.
In other words: not a great thing, but
still the best available.

What I miss in the documen¬
tation is a description of low-level
GEMDOS, BIOS and XBIOS func¬
tions. Some of them are imple¬
mented (and documented) under

Page 44

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

different names in the C library, but
many of the more Atari-specific
ones are not. These are defined as
macros in appropriate header files;
even two or three sentences of
explanation for each would make
the package more complete.

Programming Environment

All Prospero languages share
the same programming environ¬
ment: a shell program from which
you may compile, link and execute
programs without leaving the editor.
Everything is exactly as in their Pas¬
cal and FORTRAN compilers; even
without having used the other Pro¬
spero compilers one does not need
to refer to the manual. Nice.

The editor is all right, if not a
speed wizard (I still think Prospero
should think about buying the rights
to use the Tempus code; this would
be something!), except that reading
of the source files is slower than
anything else I have seen. Frankly
speaking, I do not know how it is
possible to make it this slow. This is,

however, a minor nuisance. The
shell behaves very well, being quite
intuitive and convenient to use.

The compiler and linker are a bit
faster than in the Mark Williams C,
but much slower than in the Laser C
(nobody can beat the Laser here!). I
have already developed a habit of
going to the refrigerator after start¬
ing a compilation.

The compilation process is
further slowed down by the size of
include (*.H) files containing, in
addition to all the pre-ANSI direc¬
tives, the function prototypes (or, in
plain language, specifications)
required by the ANSI standard. This
cannot be helped: you want ANSI,
you pay for it. On the other hand,
the prototypes saved me more than
once from mismatching of function
argument types. This was more than
worth the extra compilation time.

In addition to the compiler and
linker, the package contains also a
good symbolic debugger (allowing
for switching to and from the pro¬
gram output screen), a library

manager and a cross-referencer.
They are almost exactly the same as
in the other Prospero languages.

For those who, for some reason,
prefer to work from a type-in com¬
mand shell rather than from an icon/
menu driven environment, stand¬
alone TTP-type drivers for compiler
and linker are included.

Now, how does the Prospero C
environment compare to its two
major competitors: Laser and Mark
Williams C? Mark Williams’ insis¬
tence on using a command shell is
something I don’t like too much:
yes, their command shell is a very
powerful tool, but it is inconvenient
and non-intuitive to use, requiring
the user to memorize dozens of
commands. A Unix person would
not be happy with anything else, but
we are talking about normal people
here who do not want to start a new
life from scratch just to compile a
program (or a dozen).

The Laser shell is very smart,
setting up the RAMdisk and keeping
as much stuff in memory as it can.

What is the ANSI C Draft Standard?

Many of the ANSI extensions to
the original R&K C standard are just
standarization of those already in¬
corporated into recent language
implementations—for example,
enumeration types or operations on
structures (records): assignment,
passing as parameters, returning
from functions.

The most notable novelty in the
ANSI standard is the introduction of
function prototypes, specifying the
result and parameter types of
external functions. This would be
nothing new for Ada, Modula or
Pascal programmers (virtually all
Pascal implementations allow for
external subprogram specifica¬
tions), but for C it is a rather unpre¬
cedented degree of type-checking.

Actual parameter types in a
function call are checked against
the function prototype. A mismatch

causes an appropriate conversion (if
possible) or a compilation warning
(if not, or if the mismatched argu¬
ment is a pointer to a wrong type).

The program can still be com¬
piled (following the “trust the pro¬
grammer” principle), but in most
cases, the incompatibility is a result
of a programming error so that type
checking saves us a lot of sweat
during the debugging stage. Who
among us has not experienced pro¬
gram crashes calling a function as
proc(x) instead of proc(&x)??

Advantages of this feature, at
first glance not very significant, in¬
crease dramatically with program
size.

Another, frequently underesti¬
mated, aspect of the ANSI standard
is the more precise definition of
many “grey areas” from the original
K&R. Those could be, and often

were, interpreted differently in dif¬
ferent language implementations,
causing portability problems in
some programs. The code written in
ANSI C will be certainly much more
portable.

Finally, the K&R standard did
not include the required libraries,
which were (with some hints) left for
the implementors to fill in. The
libraries generally used under Unix
became a de facto standard, now
sanctioned (with some modifications
and extensions) in the ANSI draft.
Once again, the portability of pro¬
grams will be significantly improved.

One may expect, that within two
or three years, any non-ANSI-com-
patible C compiler will become
obsolete and both professional and
amateur programmers will only
benefit from this change.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 45

This gives it a tremendous speed
advantage over any other language
environment on the market. On the
other hand, the price you pay for
this is an occasional misbehavior
(read: crash) and inability to co¬
exist peacefully with many of the
useful accessories and other
memory-resident programs. As
compared to Laser, the Prospero C
shell is like an old family friend:
maybe not too exciting, but
dependable.

It is difficult to make a clear
recommendation here: your per¬
sonal preferences may play a major
role in making the right decision.

One thing missing in a package
of this quality is the resource editor.
You may have to spend an extra
$40 or so for WERCS (developed by
HiSoft and available from MichTron)
which, if not a very impressive tool,
gets things done and comes with a
nice manual. I would certainly like to
see an RCS from Prospero, con¬
forming to their high standards: the
current choice between Atari,
Megamax, Kuma and HiSoft offer¬
ings leaves a lot to be desired.

Compiler and Linker
Performance

There is not much to say about
these two: you call them from the
shell/editor and they do their job.
The compile/link cycle is quite slow,
although a little faster than in Mark
Williams C.

Under most circumstances, the
speed and size of the produced
code are more important than the
speed of the compiler (unless it is
really very slow, that is).

As far as compiled program
speed is concerned, Prospero C
delivers what one would expect: my
benchmarks for Atari ST program¬
ming languages (Current Notes
March, 1989) show that the Pros¬
pero code is generally about 20%
faster than the other two implemen¬
tations while the speed of floating
point operations falls right between
Laser and Mark Williams compilers.
All these differences are too small to
be of any real significance.

One of the few weak points in
all Prospero language implemen¬
tations is that a big runtime library is
always linked in its entirety to the
final program. This makes small
programs in Prospero C much larger
than their equivalents in, say, Laser
C. For example, the benchmark
program in Prospero C took about
40k, while the Laser version - only
15k.

This does not mean that Pro¬
spero C programs will always be
two and a half times larger than their
Laser equivalents (the relocatable
BIN files often are, in fact, smaller).
As my previous experience with
Prospero Pascal has shown, this
disadvantage disappears as the
program size increases; programs in
the 100-150k range may already be
as space-efficient as these com¬
piled with other compilers: the initial
overhead gradually pays for itself.

Prospero tries to alleviate the
size problem by providing two ver¬
sions of their runtime libraries: full
and short, the latter without float¬
ing-point operations. This helps
some, but not very much.

On the other hand, the size
disadvantage becomes important
only when we compile a memory-
resident program (e.g. a desktop
accessory), usually quite small and
sharing the memory with other pro¬
grams. For most applications we
would not notice it at all. Still, I
would prefer a smarter linker.

Language Standard and
Libraries

As I have already mentioned,
Prospero C is the first full ANSI draft
standard C implementation for the
Atari ST. It has some extensions
beyond the standard, but these (as
in all Prospero languages) can be
disabled if strict compatibility is
required.

To about 170 Unix-derived li¬
brary functions required by the new
standard, Prospero added about 30
of their own (these numbers do not
include the GEM AES and VDI bind¬
ings). This variety may be quite
overwhelming for a newcomer to C,

but it certainly gives the program¬
mer a quite impressive toolbox to
use.

Prospero’s choice of following
the ANSI standard makes good
sense: it may promote them from
the position of new kid in the neigh¬
borhood to that of leader of the
pack—at least for many program¬
mers.

Mixed-Language Program¬
ming

Two extra specifiers can be
used in function declarations and
prototypes: pascal and fortran.
Specifying an external function as
pascal or fortran informs the Pro¬
spero compiler, that the (compiled)
routine was written in the other
language. This is important, as the
order and mechanism of parameter
passing will be different in each
language, as will be the division of
stack housekeeping chores.

In the opposite direction, speci¬
fying a function written in C as
pascal or fortran instructs the
compiler to compile it so that it will
be compatible with (this means call¬
able from) the other language.

In either case the linker has to
be instructed to scan the libraries of
both languages in the proper order
(luckily, only one of the big runtime
libraries has to be included).

Some programmers will not
have much use for these features,
some (I in this number) will. It is
really very nice to be able to use -
from a C program - my old numeric
routines written umpteen years ago
in FORTRAN, or my high-level AES
toolbox procedures from Pascal,
without having to recode everything.
And, in reverse, it may be very nice
to incorporate some delightfully
short (and equally unreadable) C
functions into a Pascal program, just
declaring them as EXTERNAL.

This adaptability is—on the Atari
ST—unique to the Prospero
language family (their FORTRAN
and Pascal linker and libraries were
slightly modified about a year ago to
allow for this; you may need an
update, which makes sense

Page 46

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

anyway).

On the other hand, sometimes I
miss the option of in-line assembly,
which is present in Laser C. True,
Prospero languages are compatible
with GST assembler, but it is usually
much more convenient to enter just
a few lines of assembly code in
those very few places you may
really need it, using all the other
stuff as set up from a higher-level
language. In most everyday situa¬
tions, however, this is not a dis¬
advantage.

GEM Libraries

Not much can be said here: all
GEM functions are implemented in
the standard fashion and everything
seems to work properly. About 20
extra routines not present in the DRI
standard bindings were added by
Prospero, mostly to make some
AES object operations easier. As I
already have stated, the two-
volume documentation of GEM
libraries is generally first-class.

In addition to recompiling some
of the example programs supplied
with the package, I have ported into
Prospero C a small (6-page) prin¬
ter-setting program from Prospero
Pascal. Everything went so
smoothly that the project turned out
quite boring. Some of the compilers
I have used never reached this
stage.

Pros and Cons

Having three good C compilers
for our machine is a good sign:
somebody will use them to write
good application programs. On the
other hand, the choice among the
three may not be so easy.

There is nothing really wrong
with the current v.3 of the Mark
Williams C compiler. For the Unix
aficionados it may even be the first
choice (yes, you can use Tempus
instead of MicroEmacd). But my
feelings are divided between the
Laser and Prospero implemen¬
tations:

☆ The Laser compiler is really

fast, with a clear edge over

Prospero (or anybody else) -

on the other hand, I find the
Prospero environment some¬
what more robust and easier to
use.

☆ Laser produces smaller pro¬
grams (at least as long as they
stay small in general), which
gives it an advantage in deve¬
loping desktop accessories. On
the other hand, Prospero is
ANSI-compatible and pro¬
gramming in it is generally
safer.

☆ Laser has the in-line assembly
option, but Prospero allows for
painless mixed-language pro¬
gramming within its language
line.

☆ Prospero’s documentation is
better, but Laser’s is good, too.

☆ Laser C comes with an RCS,
but the Prospero package has
a debugger included in the
price ($150 recommended
retail, possibly less when dis¬
counted).

To summarize: if you insist on
the ANSI standard, Prospero C is
the only choice. If you do not, take
into account the above points and
make the decision yourself. I do not
do much C programming, but when

I do, I am going to use both com¬
pilers: Laser for smaller utilities and
desktop accessories, and Prospero
for larger stand-alone applications.

fProspero Software, 100 Com¬
mercial St., Suite 306, Portland, ME
04101; (800)327-6730]

Small Updates:

Gribnif Software announced
their update policy for NeoDesk
(from v.2.00 or 2.01 to 2.02, men¬
tioned in my article last month). Just
send the original disk and a check
for $3 (and hope that they will not
send you back your original disk not
updated, as it happened to me!).

CodeHead Software updates
the MuitiDesk to Version 1.7 for $5
plus the original disk. They include
some new PD goodies by Mr. John¬
son with the update - the HeadStart
(replacing GEMStart with some im¬
provements) in this number. Also,
the newest versions of MuitiDesk
and NeoDesk work together without
a glitch (originally they had some
misunderstandings about who runs
the place). The responsiveness of
both companies to problem reports
could serve as an example for some
“big” software houses.

ANSI C - Recommended Reading

The second edition of Ritchie and Kernigan’s book, The C Program¬
ming Language contains a description of the draft standard—but it is
outrageously overpriced ($45 hardcover, $32 paperback—for 250 pages,
with a huge market!). There is nothing there which could not be
presented as well or better in other books. Two of those I can easily
recommend:

Programming in Ansi C by S.G.Kochan, Sams & Co., 475 pp, $25.
Complete and readable; can be read with no previous knowledge of C.

C - A Reference Manual by S.P.Harbison and G.L.Steele, Pre¬
ntice-Hall, 400pp, $28. Contains both the original K&R standard (with the
common extensions) and the ANSI draft. An excellent in-depth presen¬
tation, especially useful for experienced programmers; devotes a lot of
attention to portability and incompatibility issues and to C compiler
implementation problems in general.

Here is a very inexpensive book I just recently found in a local Crown
bookstore; it may deserve your attention:

The Waite Group’s Essentia / Guide to ANSI C by N.Barkakati,
Sams & Co, 230pp, $7. Brief but well-organized; does not attempt to
teach the language, but is useful as a quick reference.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 47

KINGS QUEST IV
Affirmative Action
Adventure

A Monster of a Game

Sierra markets their games as 3-D animated
adventures, but after fifteen projects in the same game
system, avid gamers have given generic status to the
company’s name and efforts. (“What’s that new game
like?” “Oh, it’s a little like a Sierra game.” “Gotcha.”)
With the release of King’s Quest /V—The Penis of
Rose/ia, “Sierra games” finally have a comfortable
interface and contemporary graphics. These refine¬
ments have been showcased in a monster of a game—
three megabytes of music, animation, and, of course,
those cerebral cortex-perplexing puzzles.

The Perils of King Graham’s daughter, Rosella,
occur in the land of Tamir. Rosie has accepted a quid
pro quo deal: she will be transported from Daventry to
faraway Tamir to find the cure for her dying father, but
she must also recover another item or the other party
won’t be able to transport her back to Dad. Tamir is
about thirty screens in size, but multiple screen loca¬
tions like castles, caves, and houses flesh the game out
to almost 100 screens, far bigger than King’s Quest III.
The EGA graphics and ST graphics are nearly identical,
so the IBM illustrations on the box are an accurate
indicator of what to expect. KQ4’s art is vastly improved
over previous work in the series. Nobody at Cinema-
ware is sweating, but this is nice stuff—color is particu¬
larly good.

Sierra really worked hard on improving the game
interface, and they deserve a lot of credit for finally
getting it right. Previously, this was a very frustrating
aspect of Sierra games, but the refinements have
actually made KQ4 gamer-friendly. Character move¬
ment and speed is improved, pop-up windows make
command input seem transparent, previously loaded
screens are buffered in available memory, and the
parser has taken a course in manners. With three
megabytes of code spread over four double-sided
disks, this game could’ve been a real mess, but swaps
are not too frequent. Expect game saves and restores
to number in the hundreds before Rosie’s quest is
accomplished, though.

Feminne In Nature

Like designer Roberta Williams’ previous games, the
events in KQ4 are drawn largely from fairy tales. But
there are many other literary and cinematic sources:

Greek and Egyptian mythology, Disney, The Wizard of
Oz, even hints of Dickens and the Old Testament. There
is a definite cuteness to the King’s Quest series upon
which gamers’ tastes are divided. There is also a
stereotypically feminine nature to KQ4 that feminists
may not find appealing. Rosella’s animation is very
graceful, almost dainty at times, and there is a sexist
sequence that probably should’ve been deleted. This is
the first major adventure game to feature a female
protagonist, though, so more good is done than harm.

When it comes to puzzles, The King’s Quest series,
especially III and IV, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. All that
cuteness belies a game that can be very tough at times.
Many puzzles are obvious, but only the best adventure
gamers will complete the game without several hints.
(This writer needed several hints—guess it’s back to
role-playing games.) There are also those infamous
climbing sequences in the form of mountain paths and
castle stairwells. It’s possible for Rosella to fall to her
death scores of times on these screens. The stairwell
and mountain path screens are necessary to portray;tf)e
game world, but Sierra needs to make some major
changes in their playability. Most gamers’ complaints
about the KQ series are about these sequences.

The forty minutes of music in KQ4 waS written by
William Goldstein, a noted Hollywood composer. Played
through the ST’s sound chip, it is not as impressive as
Ken Arnold’s Ultima scores or Cinemaware’s efforts, but
the MIDI soundtrack is supposed to be quite impressive
for those who have a Casio CZ-101 or Roland MT-32.
Music doesn’t play continuously through the game,
rather it pops up in certain sequences as ear candy.
Curiously, the title screen tune sounds a little like the
figure skating music in Epyx’s Winter Games.

Extended Animations

Sierra has trod somewhat into Cinemaware’s terri¬
tory by incorporating some film techniques. Recent
Sierra games have included screen wipes and dis¬
solves, but KQ4 also includes iris in and iris out screen
swaps. The beginning and end are also extended
animations that run about ten minutes each. Nice as
these passive sequences are, they do not live up to
their advertising hype as “computer cartoons.” Still,
these kinds of efforts are the harbingers of what CD-I
will someday do for adventure and role-playing games.

Page 48

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

As mentioned, the game comes on four double¬
sided disks, so SF354 owners are out of luck. Disk
space has become a problem in converting the more
sophisticated games to the ST. Cinemaware games
suffer due to the single-drive dilemma, as seen most
recently with Sinbad and the Throne of the Fa/con. The
situation is unfortunate, especially since the ST can
otherwise hold more graphics screens than an Amiga of
equal memory. Atari may have to step up that single
drive conversion program if they want the ST to
compete with the Amoeba.

KQ4 uses password protection only, so it can be
played off a hard disk. Needless to say, that’s a great
way to go for a game this big. It’s also playable on a
monochrome monitor, if anybody cares. That used to
mean something in Europe; perhaps it still does.

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS FULL
ANSWERS TO THE PUZZLES IN KING’S QUEST
FOUR. IT’S SUGGESTED YOU SCAN ONLY THE
BOLD TYPE FOR THE AREA THAT HAS YOU
STUCK, AND READ ONLY THAT SOLUTION.

Although King’s Quest IV is not 100 per cent linear,
the following clues are mostly in proper order to solve
the game. You should save the game often under
different names, in case you need to backtrack.

THE FROG POND —Drop the gold ball in the pond,
which can be found under the little bridge south of this
screen. Watch what happens, then pick up the frog and
kiss it.

MINSTREL —Give him the book, which is in the large,
deserted house.

THE POOL —Show yourself to Cupid. Take his bow.

PAN —Play the lute the minstrel gave you, then offer it
to Pan.

DWARVES’ TREEHOUSE— This is the aforemen¬
tioned sexist sequence. Rosie has to clean those slobs’
rooms.

DWARVES’ MINE —Solve their house before doing
this. Return the pouch that was left on the table after
dinner. Offer it to the same dwarf that brought Rosie her
soup.

FISHERMAN’S HOUSE— Give the pouch of dia¬
monds to the fisherman. He’ll give you his fishing pole.
Some trade, huh?

WATERFALL —This is a tough one. Wear the crown
the minstrel gave you. Take the board on the next
screen. Take the bones on the next screen. Light the
lamp the dwarf gave you. Go east, south, south, east
through the cave screens. The ogre will get you often.
You need to arrive at a screen with a little bit of light
visible in the northeast. Lay the board across the
chasm. (This part is tough, since you can’t see the

chasm.) Save the game frequently.) The cave leads to
the swamp.

THE SWAMP —Jump on the tufts of grass to the next
screen. Use the board again to get from the last tuft to
the island. Play the flute Pan gave you to hypnotize the
snake. Take the magic fruit and scoot. Go back the way
you came, through the cave. Sorry about that.

UNICORN (Lolotte’s First Demand)—Let Lolotte’s
henchmen capture Rosella in the southeastern screen
of Tamir. Get the worm west or northwest of the same
screen. Its appearance is random. Get the feather on
Genesta’s island three screens west of the fisherman’s
pier. (It’s probably best to do this early in the game,
before you meet Lolotte.) Catch a fish off the pier with
the worm and the fisherman’s pole. Swim west two
screens and back until the whale swallows you. Climb
the whale’s tongue from the left to the top, hitting the
right and up keys rhythmically. Tickle the whale on the
uvula with the feather. Swim north to the deserted
island. Search the boat on the right for the bridle. Feed
the fish you caught to the pelican. Blow the whistle.
Ride the dolphin back to Tamir. Shoot the unicorn with
Cupid’s bow. Put the bridle on.

DESERTED ISLAND —Search boat for bridle. Feed
fish to pelican. Blow whistle. Ride dolphin.

THE OGRE’S HOUSE (Lolette’s Second Demand)-
Throw the bones to the dog. Get the axe upstairs. Hide
in closet downstairs. Take the hen after the ogre falls
asleep, and be quick. Return to Lolotte with hen. This
sequence can be tough, but you just have to save a lot
and keep trying.

THE EVIL TREES —Use the axe and they’ll never
bother you after that.

THE WITCHES’ CAVE —Grab the eye while they are
passing it to each other. Leave. Come back and take
the scarab they offer. Throw the eye back.

THE DESERTED HOUSE AND GRAVEYARDS

(Lolotte’s Third Demand)—After you get the scarab,
night falls. THIS PUZZLE ONLY OCCURS AT NIGHT.
Pull the latch on the wall in the west room. Take the
shovel in the secret room. Don’t take the stairs yet. Find
the baby ghost, then find its grave and dig. Bring the
discovered object back to the baby ghost. Do this for
each of the five ghosts that appear. Read the tomb¬
stones to find where to dig.

The shovel will break after five digs, so find the right
spot. The scarab will automatically protect Rosella from
the zombies.

The last ghost will lead you up a ladder to the attic.
Give him the disinterred object, then open the chest.
Take the sheet music. Go downstairs to the secret room
and climb the stairs. Play the sheet music on the organ.
Get the skeleton key. Unlock the crypt in the east
graveyard. Climb down rope. Get Pandora’s box. Go
back to Lolotte.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 49

ESCAPE FROM LOLOTTE’S CASTLE— Use the

key Edgar brings, and go down the stairs. Go past the
first sleeping guard to the next screen, and enter the
northern-most room on the east wall. Open the cabinet
on the right and get all your possessions. Leave this
room, then head east, past the throne room to the east
tower. Climb the stairs. Unlock Lolotte’s chamber with
Edgar’s gold key. Shoot Lolotte with Cupid’s bow. Take
the amulet. Go back down the first flight of stairs. Enter
the doorway, located on the left. Take the hen and
Pandora’s box. Go down the next stairwell and leave
through the front of the castle. Release the unicorn by
opening the gate in the middle. Go back to Genesta’s
island and give her the amulet. I left out one part you
will have to figure out on your own to obtain a perfect
score.

As always, if anyone has a question about The
King’s Quest games, or any of the games I’ve reviewed,
I can be reached on GEnie (R.MILLARD1), or you can
write me, care of Current Notes.

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Page 50

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

Does Your Computer Have

A.I.D.S.?

by David G. Grace

Special Agent for the United States

It’s been a great winter in
Pittsburgh, mildest this century. But
it’s been a great personal one as
well. For instance, I received a
Special Award from the Govern¬
ment for my part in the capture and
conviction of a serial arsonist
whose estimated 70 fires resulted
in two deaths and over one million
dollars in damage. He got back to
back life sentences. I guess it
wasn’t a good winter for him.

But it was one particular day
that seems to stand out. That
morning, convicted murderer Ted
Bundy did not receive a telephone
call from the Governor. That night, I
did receive one from Joe Waters. In
between those events, I had a
shocking conversation with a dis¬
traught Secret Service Agent.

To keep things in perspective,
I’ll relate the call from Waters first.
He is the Editor of Current Notes,
the highly regarded, Washington,
D.C. area, Atari newsletter (better
described as newsmagazine), invit¬
ing me to be a regular columnist for
Current Notes, and become
“nationally famous.” I suggested
that I was already nationally famous
or he wouldn’t be calling, but that I
was more concerned over my
loyalty to the Westmoreland Atari
Computer Organization’s WACO
Printout. He said that it was no
problem, just submit the same arti¬
cle to both publications simultane¬
ously, and be a syndicated col¬
umnist. Well, that did it! As I agreed
to share some future articles with
Current Notes (I lack the time, talent
or material for a monthly column), I
kept hearing that “by line” running
through my head. Surely, my
Government award would then
qualify me as “an award winning,
syndicated columnist!” Well...okay.

Maybe not. But let’s move on to the
real business at hand.

Earlier that same day, I took the
Federal Building elevator to the
second floor cafeteria. There I saw
a Secret Service Agent with whom I
had worked on protection details
during the recent Presidential
Campaign. He was hunched over a
table, staring straight down into a
cup of black coffee. I attempted to
engage him in conversation.

G: What’s the matter? Nothing to
do after the election? [No answer,
/n fact, no movement at a//. / got
closer and spoke louder.] Hey!
What’s the word?

This time he moved. With light¬
ning speed, his meaty fist wrapped
around my new power tie and
yanked downward. My chin stop¬
ped just short of the table top. His
head slowly turned toward me until
we were nose to nose. I noticed
that tiny beads of perspiration were
in a thin layer over his entire face. !
was reminded of that scene in the
film “The Graduate,” where a party
goer buttonholes Dustin Hoffman
and provides him with the cryptic
word, “Plastics.” There was the
feeling of Deja Vu as the Agent, his
grip unrelaxed and his wide eyes
staring straight into mine, said one
word, with a combination of
urgency and terror.

S: Viruses!

Prying what had once been my
tie from his still clenched fist, I sat
down and urged him to tell me
everything. He began talking slowly
at first, but began to pick up speed
as if he wanted to get it all out of
his system. Since the election, he
had returned to computer investi¬
gations, particularly hacker in¬
vasions of main frames where
viruses were left behind to cause

havoc later. There had been some
arrests in the past few months, but
viruses were turning up every¬
where, like in Government com¬
puters at NASA and the Defense
Department, as well as some
university mainframes doing
research for the Government.

G: I got burned myself last month
and I don’t even own a hard drive. I
downloaded a program off a BBS. I
ran it with a floppy in the drive filled
with about a month’s worth of
downloads. The program, without
warning of any kind, proceeded to
format the disk. The entire disk side
was lost. None of the programs had
been backed up.

S: It’s the hard drives that are the
real victims. Your program was self
eliminating. The ones I worry about
wipe out an entire library and are
passed on long before they are
activated. This allows rapid spread
before the symptoms are noticed.
Some programs allow only one
“install” onto a hard drive, so even
if you still have the original disks,
you can never use the program on
the hard drive again.

G: I saw a reprint of an article in the
Keeping Paee newsletter called
“Computer Giant to Enter Battle
Against Virus” in their November
1988 issue. It described a new latex
envelope for disk storage, called
“Troyans,” to protect against virus
spread. The thin sleeve allows the
disk to remain covered and protec¬
ted, even while in the drive. A
company called Pewlett-Hackard is
allegedly selling them.

S: [He smirked .]He wasn’t afraid to
name names, was he? Sounds like
an April Fool article to me.

G: That really stinks! April Fool
articles should only be printed in
April issues where people won’t
take them too seriously. I wonder if
I’ll get my check back from Pew¬
lett-Hackard?

S: As an Atari owner, you have
more important things to worry
about, more so if you had a hard

drive.

G: Like what?

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 51

S: Like A.I.D.S.!

G: Excuse me?

S: A.I.D.S.! Atari Invaded Drive
Surprise! Maybe the worst virus of
them all. Most viruses attack hard
drives, some floppies. Some repro¬
duce before attacking, others sur¬
vive the attack itself. A.I.D.S. does
all of the above and is usually fatal
to your entire library.

G: Personally, I think that anyone
catching that kind of virus probably
brought it upon themselves. Pro¬
bably had their hardware some¬
where it really didn’t belong.

S: Usually that is true. On occasion,
it is passed via BBS or by some
other direct interface.

G: It’s not just limited to high risk
groups?

S: No. Any Atari owner is suscept¬
ible. Actually it is a misnomer, as it
can infect any machine and its
source was outside Atari.

G: So, where did it come from?

S: [The agent looked around the
cafeteria and lowered his voice.]
You have the same security
clearance I do, right?

G: Yeah. I won’t tell anyone. fOkay,
/iied] So what is the source?

S: [He lowered his voice further, to
a bare wh/sper]\t’s the “C” word.

G: You don’t mean it! From the
Commod... [I ducked another paw
headed for my mouth. J
S: Quiet! You never know who’s
listening. It migrated to the Atari
community before its existence was
discovered.

G: But how? Their software isn’t
even compatible.

S: It was those damn flippy disks.
You know. Their version on one
side and Atari on the other.

G: You mean the disks that go both
ways?

S: The virus may have started in the
public domain, but likely migrated
to Atari on flippy disks from that
other outfit.

G: Maybe we shouldn’t look down
too much on those other folks. The
“C” word can crop up in the best of

families. My own brother for in¬
stance. Sure, he’ll lure some un¬
suspecting friend up to his place
under the pretense of playing one
of those hexagon board wargames,
like the Star Trek ripoff. Next thing
you know, his hardware is out of
the closet and he’s showing off
how he’s written a program to do
all the game’s calculations, add
sound effects, roll the dice, or
determine outcomes on that “C”
machine. It’s embarrassing to even
admit it now. I’ve tried to convince
him to go straight Atari.

S: Of course, until recently, no one
has tried to do anything about it.
They’ve just assumed that those
other folks are just enjoying an
alternative computing style.

G: Has something occurred to
change that?

S: Yes. Recently software com¬
panies have begun producing flippy
disks that have Big Blue or the Fruit
Company on the back side, instead
of Atari. Once, those fundamentalist
groups thought that the viruses
were just God’s way of saying we
spent too much time playing
games with our machines. Now that
they’ve started getting the viruses,
too, they’re more concerned.

G: Maybe the viruses are just God’s
way of saying they take their
machines too seriously!

S: Of course, the rich and influential
folks who own those machines
have the ears of the brass and now
the Surgeon General is involved.

G: You must be joking! He’s a
medical man, not a hacker’s helper.
S: I said they were rich and influen¬
tial, not smart and logical.

G: Oh yeah, I forgot for a moment
which machines they own.

S: Anyway, it seems the S.G. owns
one too, and now he’s jumped in
with both feet. Trouble is, some of
what he says makes sense. Unfor¬
tunately, the rest is also likely to be
accepted.

G: Like what?

S: Abstinence. Not computing at
all. Putting your hardware on hold.

And if the urge to compute is too
strong, then at least limit the pos¬
sible sources of infection, like using
only factory fresh software received
still in the plastic, and then only on
one machine.

G: That’s fine for some people, but
you know there is a lot of public
domain software circulating around
on the streets. There are even user
groups out there set up solely for
the purpose of swapping software.
Even the normal groups encourage
free exchanges of disks or direct
interfacing.

S: Not to mention the bulletin board
systems. You were lucky. You got
Hackers Simplex One. That one
isn’t as catching and the symptoms
are just a nuisance. Hackers Sim¬
plex Two is much more severe,
highly contagious and likely to
recur at odd times throughout your
computing career. You could have
been exposed to A.I.D.S. and suf¬
fered memory loss, glitches and,
eventually, a fatal crash which
would have retired your hardware
permanently.

G: A fate worse than death!

S: The S.G. did have one other
warning, especially for those in high
risk groups.

G: Which was?

S: Don’t forget to use “write-
protect” tabs and have them with
you, even if you were planning to
“read only” that night. Don’t wait
until you’ve logged on to some
pay-as-you-play commercial
board before you wonder what
might be slipping past your
modem.

G: I hate those things, so messy.
And who wants to stop in the
middle of great interfacing to put
one on? I have a disk drive with a
“write-protect” button for more
convenience.

S: That’s fine, but you have to keep
remembering to push the button
every time you turn the system on,
or load a new disk, even if you
don’t have specific plans to inter¬
face. You were probably using that
drive when you got burned before.

Page 52

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

G: Beats the tabs anyway. I lost one while computing
once. Broke off unexpectedly. Lost it in the drive.
Never did find it. That’s the problem with the one-
size-fits-all world we live in today. Any other sugges¬
tions from the S.G.’s Office? Does he plan to put
warning labels on any new hardware?

S: I don’t know about that, but he did say that whether
at a user group meeting, exchanging P.D. software on
the street or just downloading from a BBS, you should
always remember one thing. When you interface with
someone else’s hardware or software, you are inter¬
facing with everyone that they have ever interfaced
with.

G: Sounds scary, not to mention kinky.

S: Scary is right! Some of the fundamentalists are
suggesting that those who have been diagnosed with
a virus have their modems physically removed from
their systems, guaranteeing no further spread. [His
head again lowered over his coffee cup.] It gives me
the shivers just thinking about it.

G: I don’t even like my modem being touched by a
stranger. But cheer up. You don’t even own a
computer.

S: [His voice lowered nearly to a whisper again.] \
guess I never told you, but I do own one.

G: Which one?

S: [His voice was bare/y audib/e and quivering. ] I just
can’t bring myself to say the name, it’s been in the

closet so long, but it’s the “C” word again!

I left the cafeteria without eating. As I took the
express elevator back to the twenty-first floor, I felt
very good that the only interfacing I’d done was
straight Atari. I’d see to it that I’d raise my kids the
same way.

[A Special Note to subscribers of Current Notes: The
author is an eighteen year veteran Federal Agent
specializing in bomb and arson investigations through¬
out western Pennsylvania. He is also a member of
P.A.C.E., an officer of W.A.C.O., an Atari computer
advocate and a semi-professional actor. He considers
his writing to be a cross between a consen/ative Pa/ph
Nader, a long-winded Art Buchwaid and a poor-man’s
Joseph Wambaugh. Recently, he became “an award
winning, syndicated columnist. ”]

The 159-page Atari ST Book , by Ralph Turner,
author of ST Informer’s Help Key column, begins
where your owner’s manual leaves off. “Very
useful on every level, from rank
beginner to the most advanced ST
_ owner.” 1ST Business.) “Genuinely

I ipTfp helpful . . . multitude of tips . . pure
.(B pleasure.” (Current Notes.) $16.95
+ $2.00 shipping. Check, Visa/MC.
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THE ONE PLACE FOR
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ANYTHING with the Atari name on it, we are the people to talk to for sales, service and support. We carry a full line
of software, accessories and peripherals for:

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We also provide factory-authorized service on all Atari-manufactured products. We have been in the service/
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4916 Del Ray Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814 (301)656-7983

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 53

The

By:

Junkyard

John

Pussycat.

Barnes

The Junkyard Pussycat came to be a somewhat
disreputable critter surrounded by masses of materiel
(some useful, some not) because he spent too much
money and time fooling around with Atari computers
and software for them. Roaming around the junkyard
gives him plenty of opportunity to turn up little tidbits to
pass on to fellow Atarians.

Hanging in There —One item that makes the
pussycat purr is Phasar from Marksman Technology.
Version 3.02 of this versatile home accounting package
features a new interface to Tax Advantage. Double
Eagle Software’s popular income tax preparation pro¬
gram. I have always been satisfied with the way Phasar
handled my taxes, but I plan to look into Tax Advantage
real soon because a little extra assistance in this
sensitive area never hurts.

I looked for the MS-DOS version of Phasarso that I
could give my brother-in-law a copy for Christmas. I
didn’t find it, so I had to order direct from Marksman.
The list price of around $80 makes Phasar competitive
with Managing Your Money, but I have not worked with
the latter product, so I cannot say which is better.

Version 3, in general, is a much more satisfactory
tool than version 2.3 was. The editing of tax forms is
much cleaner, the on-line help functions are much
more helpful. Those of you who were put off by some of
the purported problems with the early versions should
reconsider.

If you do have an earlier version you should check
with ANTIC publishing to see what you can do to
update to the newest version.

I admit that I spend several hours each month at the
job of entering data into Phasar. I do, however, feel that
I know where my money is going and that there aren’t
going to be any surprises at tax time.

There are some more features that I would like to
see, including: (1) import/export of tax forms to facilitate
trading offbeat forms like the ones for state and local
income tax, (2) direct importation of data into the
register file to help folks who have been working with
other programs, and (3) subsetting of income and
expense categories to assist in tracking controllable
cash flow. JP hereby awards a bag of catnip to Tom
Marks for supporting his product even if he hasn’t made
a fortune on it.

Unrequited Love —One thing that has cost the
Junkyard Pussycat more than a little fur is software that
doesn’t quite do what it is supposed to. Word Perfect

falls into this lattercategory. I tried bringing it up while I
had REVOL VER installed in my Mega 4. The machine
promptly went into a deep sleep. I don’t think the
problem is with REVOLVER, because I got a similar
response from WordPerfect a\or\e when I tried to design
a form for purchase orders, where I was using the Math
functions to keep the arithmetic straight. I also tried
reading a text file of about 150,000 bytes from a disk
drive (hard or soft, it doesn’t matter). It read for a while
and then the machine went off to La-La Land. TEMPUS
has been reading this same file for months now. I buy
software so that I can use it, not so that I can point out
bugs for the manufacturer.

TEMPUS is another program that I love in spite of
its vicious personality. This viciousness takes the form
of grabbing up all of the memory in sight so that I can’t
even bring up my DESKCART! address book while I am
using it.

A Nightmare Honeymoon — About three weeks
after I got my Mega 4 I tried to wake it up one Monday
morning. It came up all bleary-eyed (the monitor
display was completely scrambled). My friendly Mega
dealer (who is also a pretty good repair shop) promptly
diagnosed the problem as an oscillator crystal that was
suffering from a slow heartbeat (10 MHz instead of 32
MHz). Since the repair shop was relatively new in the
Mega business Atari had not yet sent them their repair
kit. Five phone calls and ten days later Atari Corp finally
mailed out a crystal (at least they mailed it First Class).
Five days later it arrived and my machine was back up.
Atari’s original proposal had suggested mailing back my
mother board before a replacement could be shipped.

If this is the way Atari handles warranty repairs it is
no wonder that no one in the business world takes them
seriously. Suppose I had been an accountant with a
payroll to get out? Suppose I had not had a spare 1040
ST to get my other work done while I waited for 15 days
for a repair to be effected? Come on, let’s get some
spare parts in stock and build a relationship with repair
facilities that allows them to turn warranty repairs
around fast.

But, maybe I live in a “black hole” of some kind that
annihilates semiconductors. It is going on four weeks
that our microwave oven has been out of service
because of a part that has to come from Japan.

An Illicit Affair — One of my clients at the lab
where I work has loaned me a Macintosh NX for six
months so that I can port some code over to it so the
client can analyze his data in the comfort of his own
office. This is a really nifty machine. Using it has helped
me to understand some of David Small’s diatribes about
the “Pascal Personality” of Mac developers. Their motto
seems to be, “If we didn’t think of it, you can’t do it.”

Simple little propositions that are built into Atari
software require special modules on the Mac. Import an
ASCII text file into Microsoft Word or Aides PagemakeP
No way, without a special software module. Print a file

Page 54

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

to the screen? Why would you want to do that? No, edit
it instead. Do you want a legible display on the screen?
Go immerse yourself in the mysteries of loading in
fonts. Do you want to talk to a Postscript laser printer? It
had better be an Apple LaserWriter or you will need
another special piece of software. Do you want to move
the cursor while editing? Use the mouse.

I’ll have to admit that some of the stuff is well
thought out. It’s not too hard to get used to letting the
machine spit the disc out of the drive at you. This
should prevent a lot of stupidity. However, don’t even
think about trying to read a single-sided disk that has
been formatted as double. Don’t even think about trying
to format a single-sided disk as double. The Clipboard
concept is really neat.

On raw speed the MAC NX, with its 68030 processor
and 68881 math coprocessor, is right up there with
powerful minicomputers. A 5000 line piece of FORTRAN
code that does nothing but crunch numbers ran for
5500 seconds on the 1040 ST, 1100 sec on a VAX
11/730, and 663 sec on the MAC IIX. Window openings
were lightning fast.

This machine had 256 colors on the monitor, which
is important to the application we are working on. The
Multifinder works for some things and not for others. If
your foreground job is mouse-intensive you can slow
the background job to a crawl. I tried some Kermit file
transferring in the background while I was working with
an image management program. Kermit couldn’t take
the suspense and timed out on me. No problem when
doing simple editing tasks, though.

Considering the high cost of productivity software
for the Mac, I think I’ll stay with my ST for a while longer.
If only I could make it walk and chew gum at the same
time (I can, but not very well, but that is a subject for a
future article).

Treat your Customers Right —One company
that knows how to cozy up to its customers is Word
Perfect Corp. The customers apparently like them
enough to want to travel off to Orem, UT and pay $500
to register for the first WordPerfect Conference.
Demand is apparently sufficient so that WPCorp has
scheduled not one, but four two-day sessions. The fee
includes up to 13 hours of conference sessions, two
luncheon talks, and two two-hour classes. I’m not sure
that I would want to pay that much, even if it did mean
that I would get to meet the founders themselves at a
banquet.

All of this is conveyed wistfully, because sessions
on the Atari ST (and the Amiga) versions are conspicu¬
ous by their absence. The magazine that I found all of
this information in did have a letter from an ST owner
who was begging WPCorp not to overlook users of
non-MS-DOS machines. This February 1989 issue of
WordPerfect magazine also contains an excellent over¬
view on desktop publishing.

I must say that in several calls to WPCorp I have
been treated with unfailing courtesy and I have been
helped. That certainly helps to generate a feeling that
they will make it right, somehow. This spirit is wearing a
little thin among ST users, but it is the universal
perception in other parts of the WPCorp marketplace.

Power With a Price —Since I bought WordPerfect
for the Atari ST in October of 1988 I have received three
updated versions. I have received them promptly, at the
cost of a phone call and with no need to return original
disks. If I count all of the money that I have sent in to
Versasoft and Softlogik and add that to the original price
of dBMAN and Publishing Partner \ find that I have paid
quite a stiff price. I expect to be shelling out more in the
future. I could have spent a lot more if I had succumbed
to the blandishments of assorted other vendors, but I
didn’t figure that their products were worth the aggrava¬
tion.

From here on out I am going to do the best I can to
avoid purchases where I am going to have to pay big
upgrade prices to fix something that should have been
right the first time. I no longer feel the need to be the
first kid on the block to own the latest software
sensation. The market is mature enough now so that the
qualities that separate good stuff from the bad are
known. The developers should forgo the hype and stay
at their terminals long enough to give me a product that
works the first time around. Charge me a fair price and
give me some real support.

Consumers are always going to scream for some¬
thing new but developers should, by now, have the
sense to keep quiet until their products to meet this
demand are known to work.

My colleagues here at Current Notes are a big help
because I get the word on things like Ca/amus and
DynaCadd in time to avoid costly mistakes. I only wish
that other reviewers could be as objective and profes¬
sional.

Of course I can say all of these things now because
I already have software that does (almost) everything I
want. The desparation that comes with needing to solve
a problem quickly isn’t there any more.

Who Owns an Idea? —In its March 6, 1989 issue
Forbes magazine detailed some of the struggles that
software entrepreneurs are suffering at the hands of
companies like Lotus, Ashton-Tate, and Apple who
threaten litigation against people making products that
emulate the “look and feel” of their own. Windowing is,
after all, becoming the dominant user interface for
interactive computer use.

The article puts forth many interesting analogies,
particularly when discussing the languages for com¬
municating with products like Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE.
Just because someone writes a book in English, can
they prevent anyone else from using the alphabet?

(Continued on Page 61.)

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 55

The Graphic Mventure:

T ransylvanla

you feel especially masochistic. Courteous of them to
give you the chance to decide, eh?

The frog, goblin, and cat have or contain or are
witholding information that is valuable. They’re friends
no matter how indifferent and unhelpful they seem to
be. They just need an extra push.

Objects

Barring a few red herrings which aren’t used at all,
once you use an object its use is useless. Because you
can only juggle a certain number of objects with two
hands, it’s advisable to drop an object once you’ve
used it.

Examine everything, even things not listed in the
text but viewable in the pictorial location.

Locations

Transylvania is an old, old, classically old game
from Penguin Software/Polarware, but it serves the
graphic adventure genre quite nicely. While abundant
on the 8-bit, a “straight” graphic adventure is hard to
come by on the ST, perhaps because too much
emphasis is laid upon the quality of the graphics; so
much so, they act more as painting backdrops than
essentials to the game. Transylvania, however, has one
scene for every “room” and those pictures may contain
clues to solving the game.

Transylvania must be searched for, but once found,
can be purchased for as low as $9.95
in either format. It’s well worth it just
to see another and increasingly rare
aspect of the Adventure Game.

Characters

The victim is the fair princess,

Sabrina. The goal should be clear:
rescue her from the clutches of evil
doers and ne’er-do-wells.

The two main antagonists that
consistently bother you are the
werewolf and vampire. Thus, you
should kill them as soon as possible
(where else but in a game can you
say that?). Stay true to the legends and you should fare
well. In the vampire’s case, be aware there is one object
that he will always avoid. If you have it, he will avoid
you. It’s, therefore, logical that if he avoids you, you’ll
never be able to kill him. As for the werewolf, there’s
only one thing he fears: the vampire. So deathly afraid
of him, the werewolf won’t even step into the vampire’s
lair. Both the werewolf and vampire will not harm you
immediately. They’ll show up and give you one move to
do something before they decide to have you for
dinner. You should either run away or kill ’em unless

As always, mapping is useful. There are no mazes
or infinitely repeating rooms but a few rooms are bigger
than you might expect. Map accordingly.

Typing “IN” and “OUT” are easier and faster
shortcuts to “ENTER HOUSE” or “LEAVE HOUSE.”

On occasion, an eagle will pick you up and drop
you wherever it chooses. It’s nothing to worry about,
just an annoying setback.

Questions and Answers

O. i'm stumped at the very beginningZ What does the

stump say ?

A. In its drugged stupor, it’s not
saying much of anything.

O. The re’re a bunch of rocks in
front of a cave entrance and
inside another large dark cave.
Do they form some sort of
passageway or contain a
secret entrance or is it Just the
same cave or can / move the
rocks or can / pick up just one
or is there something hidden
beneath the rocks or are they
there for decoration or a sym¬
bol of what’s yet to come or
food for the enormous rock

monster?

A. What was the question again?

O. What’s the note for?

A. To get at the correct pitch? If it’s still dark outside,
you’re safe. Rather, Sabrina’s still safe.

Q. What can / do inside the log cabin? / just see a
fireplace and a moose.

A. I know moose and that’s no moose!

Q. i just see a fireplace and a deer.

A. Why are there no plural forms of “moose” or “deer”?
Or “elk” or “bison,” for that matter? Because they’re

Page 56

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

herbivores? But that’s beside the point. The real ques¬
tion is whether the deer’s male or female.

O. Oh deer, the werewo/f keeps appearing.

A. Smile and move on or grin and kill him.

O. How do / get through the locked door inside the
cave?

A. Search me.

O. What should i do with the book?

A. It’s your ticket to escape but don’t waste your mind;
you’re still able to read it.

Q. What’s the significance of the statue?

A. Look into something that foretells the future.

O. Why does the gravestone have my name on it with
today’s date?

A. Keep asking questions and you’ll be in there sooner.
But wait, what if it’s not empty?

Q. The owner of the house hates moose and deer. How
should / appease him?

A. Smile and grin, pilgrim. And compliment him on his
resemblance to Ed Begley, Jr.

Q. is the state bread useful?

A. Save it for later, little girl. You and Hansel should be

lucky you’re not lost.

O. Should i shatter the window?

A. What kind of hospitality is that? Do you want to be
arrested for breaking as well as entering?

O. How do i get the goblin’s key?

A. Hocus-pocus. Abracadabra. Plough.

O. Oh moose, the vampire keeps appearing.

A. Grin and move on or smile and kill him.

Q. How do / get the ring from the coffer?

A. Perhaps you could inherit it.

Q. i’m back outside. I’ve followed a/i the instructions
and io and behold, there’s a flying saucer there! What
should i do?

A. Try a third-kind close encounter and then hightail it
back up to the castle. Your nerves should no longer be
shaking.

O. I’ve got Sabrina.

A. Save that for your private memoirs.

O. But what should i do with her? Er, / mean, where
should i take her?

A. “Well, it’s not far down to paradise. At least it’s not
for me. And if the wind is right...” - Christopher Cross.

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April 1989

Current Notes

Page 57

ATARI XL/XE

CN REVIEW

TOMAHAWK

Review by C.H.E.Firewick

“This new release from DataSoft puts you in the
cockpit of a U.S. Army AH-64A Apache, the world’s most
menacing Hunter Killer helicopter.

The Apache was designed to be the deadliest attack
helicopter in the sky. And it has just one mission: seek and
destroy aircraft, tanks, artillery, buildings, anything un¬
lucky enough to stand in its way. The Apache’s impressive
array of weapons, and unmatched maneuverability make it
the toughest air-war fighter going!

Features include 3-D, real-time graphics and display;
offensive and defensive flight maneuvers; ground attack
and air-to-air interception, day and night vision systems;
instrument-only flying; and complete weapons system.

Tomahawk tests your instincts, reflexes, and nerves
while challenging you with extraordinary flight and battle
stations.”

The above paragraphs are from DataSoft’s ‘hype
sheet’ for Tomahawk. Unusual as it may sound, the
program is all they claim and perhaps a bit more. To
start off, the ship is a breeze to take-off and fly (as
compared to my son’s HUEY helicopter simulator). The
controls are simple (single key), straight-forward, and
nicely laid-out. The joystick is also simple: LEFT = roll
left; RIGHT = roll right; FORWARD = pitch down; BACK
= pitch up; fire button = shoot.

Tomahawk has all of this plus the ‘DASE’ (Digital
Automatic Stabilization Equipment) computer system
which returns you to level flight (provided you don’t
exceed the limits), instead of the ‘normal’ simulations
that have you fighting with the controls all the time.
This is not to say the helicopter flies itself, but it does
make the job easier and gives you more time to work
your real purpose—blowing up the enemy!

If you have tried any other helicopter simulations,
you may find these controls simpler due to their
graphic orientation. Of the twelve displays on your
console, only two of them truly deal with numbers. The
Pilot’s Visual Display has five number displays: a)
speed (in knots)—in yellow for forward and blue for
reverse; b) Altitude (in feet); c) Estimated Time of
Arrival (in hours and minutes); d) Vertical Speed
Indicator (in feet per second); and e) Range (to
target/destination). The other one is the Doppler
Navigation Compass. It has four items: a) Heading; b)
Bearing; c) Track; and d) Doppler mode and number.
All items are nicely described in the 17-page manual.

While new controls take getting used to, I was able
to lift-off and fly around (without crashing) in under ten
minutes (this was my first aircraft simulation). This was

in mission #1, which is flight training. This gives you
the chance to aquaint yourself with the Tomahawk and
search for and shoot the ground targets (eight in each
sector) without being fired upon from ground or
hostile aircraft.

Missions #2 through #4 are combat sections.
These range from a limited engagement of four
sectors to clear (#2); to being totally surrounded and
needing to clear the map of the enemy (#3); to a
strategic battle for the entire map, in which you aid in
the front-line battles to clear occupied sectors (#4).

The OPTIONS page lets you choose a wide variety
of missions, conditions, and levels of pilot experience,
including turning off the sound. One of the nicer
features included in the game is an option to abort
anytime during play and return to this menu. So, if you
pick something over your head, you can quickly get
out of it!

The controls include some automatic audible
warnings. One is for diving. Maximum speed is 197
knots. Then you will hear a warning (beep-beep-
beep). At 210 knots you shed a rotor blade. The other
warning is for overtorqueing the engine (beep, etc.).
After awhile (15 to 30 seconds) the engine will die.
The manual says the engine will cough oil and die, but
I saw no oil although it would have been a great
touch! At least you don’t get the cracked windshield
until you actually hit the ground, and you can shoot all
the way down if you like.

You have a choice of three weapons, each having
its own style of sights—diagonal, vertical/horizontal,
and square sights respectively:

♦ CHAIN GUN - 2000 ft. range, 750 rounds per
minute, 1200 rounds at full load;

♦ ROCKETS - 4000 ft range, unguided type, 38 at full
load;

♦ MISSILES - 3.1 mile range, laser-guided auto¬
tracking hellfire missiles, 8 at full load.

You select which one to use by pressing ‘P’ till the
sight you want is on-screen.

The failure status panel gives you a quick way to
check the status of ENGINES, WEAPONS, NAVIGA¬
TION COMPUTER, and TADS (Target Acquisition and
Designation System). Also, a helicopter icon (top-
view) will flash (or a portion of it) if you take a flack hit.
The cure is simple and is the same for refilling your
weapons—go to the nearest landing pad (friendly)
and set-down, shut off the engine, and it’s fixed
and/or reloaded!

The graphics are done in fractals and give that
three-dimensional look to mountains, trees, and
buildings as well as to field guns, tanks, and enemy
helicopters. The manual talks about blowing up
buildings, but I was unable to in Mission #1 (and too
busy in higher missions). Don’t let the fact that they

Page 58

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ATARI XL/XE

CN REVIEW

don’t blow up lead you to believe they won’t harm you.
Since it wouldn’t blow up, I tried to fly through
one...CRASH!

You can fly around the mountains and through the
passes in between them but practice for awhile first!

As I said earlier, there is a map. It is divided into
sixteen rows of eight sectors. Each sector has eight
targets (enemy) to give you a total of 1,024 enemy
targets to outgun. This doesn’t include enemy helicop¬
ters, which continually harass your efforts. Moving from
sector to sector is quicker if you use a feature of the
map mode. While on a landing pad you go to the map
and then use the joystick to move the copter icon to
another sector. It’s a nice way to frustrate the enemy
copter. Wait till one is coming. Land or be already on
the ground. When he comes, go to the map and move
your icon 2, 3, 5, 10 sectors, and then you have some
breathing room to polish off the ground forces. Just try
to save one of the Hellfire Missiles for him.

As easy to fly and as maneuverable as it is,
aerobatics are not recommended. Of course, this pilot
gave it a shot—with unfortunate results. The limitations
are stated as follows:

PITCH—plus or minus 90 degrees; and ROLL—
plus or minus 110 degrees. The ship may have been
able to do a roll or a loop, but the controls and
indicators only go as far as the limits! Even at heights
of 13,000 plus feet, I could only travel within those
limits. You can roll to upside down, but it won’t go any
farther. I still had enough room to wait a bit and then
recover the roll to rightside up. A loop is even worse!
You climb up (or down), and it does an automatic roll,
during which you get stuck and can’t recover. The
power seems to be there, and you can give yourself
enough height, but it seems you are limited by the
readout gauges.

Tomahawk is even programmed for autorotation.
This is when your engine gives out, or you shut it down
(shame-shame). I have only had limited success with
this, but it does appear to be a viable feature.

For those who would like to know how high they
can go—on a full tank, straight up, maximum rise
(collective), ceiling is 13,420 feet. Unfortunately, it
takes over half an hour to get there, and then you are
out of fuel!

Besides the manual you get a quick reference card
with information on both sides. This would have been
much better if it were single-sided and on stiffer
paper. You also receive a three-page fold-out poster
that has a great deal of information about the
Tomahawk and helicopter aerodynamics, and some
tips on air-to-air combat with illustrations.

Now that I have covered the pluses of the game,
let me move on to the shortfalls that I haven’t yet
mentioned, as these are important in their own right,

not minor inconveniences:

x The use of joystick port #2. This is just from the
standpoint of us dummies who try to run the
program without reading a manual to see how
friendly and easy a program is to use.
x The SLOW response to keyboard input. Now, I know
this program is doing a lot of math to deal with the
fractals and stuff, but if you’re in a hurry to change
guns or radar modes or whatever, watch the screen
to make sure things are what you want before you
lift your finger off the key.

x No SAVE feature. This is the one that irks me to no
end. There is a pause/resume feature, but if you do
not have the time to do an entire war (they estimate
10 minutes per sector, like 2 to 3 hours), or if you
need to interrupt a session, you are out of luck!
x Gun loads—it would have been a nice feature to be
able to have the current loading style/types as a
default but be able to design your own loads within
a weight limit. I believe that is the way it works in real
life—different loads for different jobs.

Even with the above discrepancies, this is one
game I won’t be setting on the back shelf, although I
hope the manufacturers will come out with an update.

(DataSoft, 19808 Nordhoff Place, Chatsworth, Ca.
91311. List price: $29.95)

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1 S B fi I I ■ B B I | | | | | 1 i | i | | | | | | | b I | | %

April 1989

CURRENT NOTES

Page 59

Toad Computer Services Kit Advantages Include Added Flexibility
P.O. Box 1315, Sevema Park, MD 21 146 And Use of Less Expensive, Standard Components!

Build Your Own Hard Disk

ICD ST Host Adapter & MFM Controller Kit.$215.00

TCD ST Host Adapter & RLL Controller Kit.$255.00

ICD ST Host Adapter Alone.$115.00

Shoebox Style Case & Power Supply For Use With 3.5" or 5.25" Drives.$129.00

ICD FAST Style Case, With ST Host Adapter.$299.00

Seagate ST-225 20 MB 5.25" 1/2 Height MFM Drive Mechanism.$239.00

Seagate ST-238R 30 MB 5.25" 1/2 Height RLL Drive Mechanism.$255.00

Seagate ST-277R 65 MB 5.25" 1/2 Height RLL Drive Mechanism.$449.00

Seagate ST-157N 50 MB 3.5" 1/2 Height SCSI Drive Mechanism.$489.00

Seagate ST-138N 32 MB 3.5" 1/2 Height SCSI Drive Mechanism.$389.00

Seagate ST-138R 32 MB 3.5" 1/2 Height RLL Drive Mechanism..$299.00

Cables: Host Adapter to Controller or Controller to Drive...$10.00

Kit Packages

43 Megabyte SCSI Drive Package Kit.$679.00

65 Megabyte SCSI Drive Package Kit.$729.00

20 Megabyte MFM Controller & Drive Package Kit...$589.00

32 Megabyte RLL Controller & Drive Package Kit. $639.00

42 Megabyte MFM Controller & Drive Package Kit.$729.00

65 Megabyte RLL Controller & Drive Package Kit. $829.00

80 Megabyte MFM Controller & Drive Package Kit.$999.00

130 Megabyte Dual RLL Controller & Drive Package Kit...$1179.00

These Kits Use Shoebox Style Cases. For An Assembled Kit, Add $20.00.

SPECIALS!

ICD FAST50 MEGABYTE DRIVE (Room For Second 3.5" Drive) . $749.00

ICD FAST 65 MEGABYTE DRIVE (No Room For Second Drive) . $749.00

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CALL (301) 544-6943.

Please Call If You Have Questions.
Or, Call Toad Computers Support BBS
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GEnie, Our Address Is Toad-Serv.

These Prices Reflect a 4% Discount for Money Order, Certided Or Personal Checks.
We Do Accept MasterCard and Visa. Maryland Residents Please Add 5% Sales Tax.
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Would Probaby Be Less. We Can Ship UPS Red or Blue Label, Too.

We Sell A Complete Line Of Hardware & Software, Too.

Come Visit Our Store!
TOAD COMPUTERS
556Balt. Annap. Blvd.
Sevema Park, MD 21146
(On MD 648),

Easily Accesible From MD 2
or MD 3. Please Call If
You Would Like Further
Instructions. We are an
Auth. Atari Service Center.

Junkyard Pussycat (Continued from Page 55)

Ashton-Tate and Lotus, in particular, would like to
prevent others from using “their” languages to develop
programs that out-perform the originals. Now that their
next generations of products are having trouble getting
off the drawing board they have decided to use the
courtroom rather than the laboratory to assert their
dominance. They tend to forget that others were the
first to use these languages, if in a rudimentary form.

Congress needs to grapple with this problem again
because software is different from a novel (protected as
a particular expression of an idea by copyright law) or
an incandescent light bulb (protected by patent law as a
functional work). America’s competitive position in this
area depends on the freedom of creative people to
improve the state of the art as long as they do not
simply slavishly appropriate the fruits of some else’s
labor.

Atari users are all too well aware that no one
software product does everything. We are also well
aware that companies who fail to improve on their
products soon fall by the wayside. Let one hundred
flowers bloom.

FREE PD DISK
with subscription

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$18 per year plus one free PD disk.

Name_

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You can get 12 exciting issues of this Monthly
tabloid newspaper with the latest breaking
news and happenings in the Atari ST
community. We send you a coupon along with
our PD catalog, and you can choose a FREE
PD Disk. Mail this coupon today, or call (503)
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ST/nformerp&vx cim

909 NW Starlite Place,

Grants Pass, OR 97526

New Improved
Version

By

— FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BUTTER !!

• Makes your 520 / 1040 ST™ outrun a Mega ST™

• New version supports HiRes 40 and 50 line modes.

• Makes ALL versions of TOS run faster.

• Only $49.95 — Less than half the cost of a hardware blitter.

• Installs automatically — just load it and forget it.

• No soldering, no copy protection, no setup — Just speed.

Tlirho ST vs The Blitter (% speed increase)

Monochrome

Color

Blitter

Turbo ST

Blitter

Turbo ST

dBMan 5.0

10%

59%

8%

60%

Data Manager 1.1

83

94

85

88

1ST Word 1.0

37

35

34

41

GFA BASIC 2.0

22

69

13

65

Interlink 1.8

53

63

46

71

ST BASIC 1.0

221

517

219

567

ST Writer 3.0

18

116

17

127

Word Writer 2.0

34

31

35

37

Results obtained while paging through an appropriate data file.

P.O. Box 5257
Winter Park, Florida 32793
(407) 657-4611

Get In The

Ask for Turbo ST at your local dealer or send $49.95 plus $2.00 shipping and handling
to SofTrek, P.O. Box 5257, Winter Park, FL 32793. Florida residents add 6% sales
tax. Visa and MasterCard phone orders accepted. Call (407) 657-4611. Upgrades to
version 1.4 are available for $5.00 U.S. plus your original disk. Offer expires 60 days
from the date of this publication.

Turbo ST does not speed up programs that use GDOS fonts or that bypass the GEM operating
system, such as PC Ditto, but is compatible with them. TOS, ST BASIC, ST Writer, 520 ST, 1040
ST, and Mega ST are trademarks or registered trademarks of Atari Corp.

Fast Lane — Buy Turbo ST Today!

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 61

RAINBOW

Thanks to ACE of Salt Lake for this tiny program.
From the top left of the screen come blue, diagonal
lines. When the screen is filled, they begin undulating
a variety of colors.

10 REM RAINBOW
20 REM ACE OF SALT LAKE
30 GRAPHICS 15+16:COLOR 3
40 FOR X=0 TO 159 STEP 8
50 PLOT 0,0:DRAWTO X,191
60 NEXT X

70 FOR Y=191 TO 0 STEP -8
80 PLOT 0,0:DRAWTO 159,Y
90 NEXT Y

100 FOR 1=0 TO 21:READ A:POKE 1536+1,A:NEXT I
110 A=USR(1536)

120 DATA

173,11,212,201,32,208,249,141,10,212,142,24,208,232,2

32,208,246,142

130 DATA 24,208,240,232

140 END

RAINBOW2

See a rainbow border around one’s text screen.

1 CT=0:X=8:REM BACKGROUND

2 CT=CT+1:READ Q:IF Q=-l THEN 40

3 POKE 1663+CT,Q:GOTO 20

4 Z=USR(1664,X)

5 END

6 DATA

104,104,104,168,232,142,10,212,138,153,18,208,169,6,205

,31,208,208,241,96,-1

10 CT=0:X=8:REM BACKGROUND

20 CT=CT+1:READ Q:IF 0=-l THEN 40

30 POKE 1663+CT,Q:GOTO 20

40 Z=USR( 1664.X)

50 END
60 DATA

104,104,104,168,232,142,10,212,138,153,18,208,169,6,20

5,31,208,208,241,96,-1

RA1NBOW3

Fifteen vertical bars of color are formed from left to
right. After they are completed, they constantly change
colors.

100 REM GTIA TEST

115 GRAPHICS 10:FOR Z=704 TO 712:READ R:POKE
Z,R:NEXT Z

116 DATA 0,26,42,58,74,90,106,122,138,154
130 FOR X=1 TO 8:COLOR X:POKE 765,X
140 PLOT X*4+5,0:DRAWTO X*4+5,159:PLOT
X*4+1,159:POSITION X*4+1,0:XIO 18,#6,0,0,"S:”

150 NEXT X

230 FOR X=8 TO 15:COLOR 16-X:POKE 765,16-X
240 PLOT X*4+5,0:DRAWTO X*4+5,159:PLOT
X*4+1,159:POSITION X*4+1,0:XIO 18 #6,0,0,”S:”

250 NEXT X

300 COLOR 0:PLOT 65,159:DRAWTO 0,159

400 FOR X=1 TO 8:Z=PEEK(704+X):Z=Z+ 16:IF Z>255 THEN

Z=26

420 POKE 704+X,Z:NEXT X:FOR Y=1 TO 5:NEXT Y:GOTO
400

GRAPHICS

This demo by P. Budgell presents a series of
small, colored boxes beginning on the perimeter of the
screen and filling in (as diagonal lines) toward the
center. Notice the diamond shape of the negative
space. The finished design would make for a lovely pot
holder.

10 REM GRAPHICS 10/7 DEMO

11 DIM DLI$(32)

25 DIM

C(6):C(0)=0:C(1)=2:C(2)=3:C(3)=9:C(4)=10:C(5)=11:C(6)=8
30 GRAPHICS 7+16.GOSUB 40:GRAPHICS 7:GOSUB
1000:GOSUB 40:GOTO
30

35 REM

40 POKE 623,128:REM GTIA GR.10

44 POKE 87,10:REM FOOL SCREEN HANDLER

45 REM

50 POKE 704,0:REM COLOR 0
60 POKE 705,12:REM COLOR 2
70 POKE 706,38:REM COLOR 3
80 POKE 708,98:REM COLOR 9
90 POKE 709,146:REM COLOR 10
100 POKE 710,200:REM COLOR 11
110 POKE 712,250:REM COLOR 8
120 REM

130 FOR CL=0 TO 79.TRAP 160
135 COLOR C(7*(CL/7-INT(CL/7)))

140 PLOT 0,0:DRAWTO CL,95

Page 62

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

150 PLOT 79,95:DRAWTO 79-CL,0

155 PLOT 0,0:DRAWTO 79,CL

156 PLOT 79,95:DRAWTO 0,95-CL
160 NEXT CL

200 FOR X=1 TO 500:NEXT X:RETURN

1000 RESTORE 10000:FOR X=0 TO 31:READ I:POKE

ADR(DLI$)+X,I:NEXT X

2500 POKE PEEK(560)+256*PEEK(561)+84,141

2560 POKE 513,INT(ADR(DLI$)/256):POKE 512,ADR(DLI$)-

PEEK(513)*256

2570 POKE 54286,192

2900 ? ” THIS IS GRAPHICS 10/7”:? ” P. BUDGELL 1983”
3000 D=PEEK( 16)-128:IF D<0 THEN RETURN
3010 POKE 16,D:POKE 53774,DiRETURN

10000 DATA 72,169,0,141,10,212,141,27,208,141,26,
208,169,144,69,79,37

10001 DATA 78,141,24,208,169,10,69,79,37,78,141,
23,208,104,64

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32.50

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32.50

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32.50

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32.50

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25.00

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32.50

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32.50

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32.50

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32.50

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32.50

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39.95

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32.50

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25.00

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32.50

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32.50

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32.50

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12.95

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32.50

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30.00

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15.00

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32.50

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37.50

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15.00

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25.00

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37.50

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25.00

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32.50

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25.00

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32.50

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32.50

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32.50

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25.00

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Page 63

April 1989

Current Notes

This game, by Atari, is probably
the hardest I have yet to review.
Not that I didn’t like it. I did—too
much! Each time I sat down to write
the review I spent all my time
blasting Zylon fighters.

If you thought the original ver¬
sion of this game was a classic,
wait till you try this one. It’s like
comparing a skinny, underfed
orphan to Marilyn Monroe. The gra¬
phics are excellent. I’m amazed as
to how much Atari can cram into
48K of memory (shades of Marilyn).

You are looking out the battle
window of your new Liberty Star
fighter, the hottest machine since
the Lamborghini (and much less
expensive). You can see the sur¬
face of the planet you are orbiting
and the sky above (usually filled
with enemy fighters).

Below the battle window is your
fighter control center, with energy
level, weapons selection and
stores, tactical scanner, and various
computer and communications
monitors displayed. Above the bat¬
tle window is the score box and
message window.

Your joystick controls speed
and altitude, along with fire control
of the Pulse Laser Cannons for the
Zylon Fighters, Ion Cannon for the
Destroyers and Command Ships,
and Surface Star Bursts for the
bombing attacks on the Zylon
Attack Bases. This baby has more
firepower than a pyromaniac with a
case of matches!

It doesn’t take too much prac¬
tice to handle the Zylon Fighters,
but the Destroyers and Command

Ships are another story. A lot of
patience and luck, combined with
what little skill I have, finally ena¬
bled me to get beyond being
assigned to the garbage scow for
losing my ship.

Also, your keyboard com¬
mands the selection of weapons,
tactical radar mode, shield deploy¬
ment, difficulty level (I never got
beyond 1), system chart (map of
the galaxy), and pausing the game.

The system chart is your Tri¬
ple—A map, and displays the
planets, attacking Zylon squadrons,
space stations, and the dreaded
Procyon Star System where Chut
produces and launches his squad¬
rons of fighters and other nasty
weapons of destruction. Moving
around the galaxy is simple, by
merely pointing to where you want
to go and hitting the joystick button
to engage the Warp engines.

The real skill in this game is
using strategy to wipe out the
Zylon Attack Bases, which produce
flying weapons faster thanNixon
can erase tapes. Unless you do
this, you are faced with an endless
array of enemy attacks that will
finally damage your shields and
toast your pilot’s seat to an awfully
uncomfortable temperature.

The only irritant in the whole
scheme is the rapid rate at which
you use energy and have to
“warp” back to a space station for
more gas (or whatever fuel that
thing uses) and repairs. It some¬
times seems that you do more
commuting than shooting.

However, there is a little-
known trick of re-energizing in mid
air, with the high probability of
melting down your Liberty Fighter
into a key chain if you fail. This
option is alluded to in the manual,
and I’ll let you have the fun of
learning how to do it (for $5.00 I’ll
send you the secret and a bright,
Titanium key chain, while supplies
last).

Once I mastered this techni¬
que, I managed to blow away the
Zylon Master Force, including their
upstart leader Chut (short for Chut¬

ney I guess—with a name like that
he’s got to be bad), and managed
to get promoted to Captain. That
rank, by the way, is only half-way
to the top rank of Fleet Admiral, so
you get some idea of how difficult
this game can be.

STAR RAIDERS II is terrific. For
a guy that is not a “computer
gamer,” this one’s for me. It’s fast,
but requires strategy to survive.
Especially the “some like it hot”
mid-air gas stop part, but hey, no
one said this would be a piece of
cake when you signed on. Right?

My only final disappointment
was no kiss from Princess Leia, or a
back slap and grunt from Chewey
after I had wiped out the invaders. I
guess the Force wasn’t with me-
-maybe in STAR RAIDERS III.

NECROMANCER is a fast
arcade-style fantasy game written
by Bill Williams and released on
cartridge by the Atari Corporation
for all XL/XE machines. In it (the
rear blurb of the package explains),
you’ll unite the forces of nature to
combat an evil wizard “whose
black magic darkens the forest and
threatens doom to its helpless in¬
habitants.” As llluminar, “the
legendary Druid sorcerer,” you will
combat Tetragorn, the Necroman¬
cer, and his army of ogres and
“venom spiders.”

In the first stage of the game,
the figure of llluminar appears on a
black background, holding a “wisp”
(one of the best things about the
game, a sort of fireball that can be
thrown and guided around the

Page 64

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

screen with the joystick) and ten
seeds. Your goal is to grow as
many trees as possible before the
forces of Tetragornsap away all
your magical strength. Seeds are
planted by moving the wisp to the
desired location and pressing the
fire button on the joystick. Seeds
instantly sprout into enchanted
trees. Now an ever-increasing
flock of ogres and venom spiders
rush from the edges of the screen
to try to blight your trees. You must
fight them off by casting the wisp
and guiding it from beastie to
beastie. Withering trees can be
healed with a quick touch of the
wisp. Occasionally an “eye pod”
will appear, worth extra seeds if
you destroy them.

The second stage of the game
begins when you’ve exhausted
your power or been bitten by too
many venom spiders; then you are
transported to the hatching cham¬
bers of the Salivating Sith Spiders.
Now, with your wisp, you begin to

animate the army of magic trees
that you grew during the previous
round, and send them out to des¬
troy the spider larvae before they
mature and attack you. Meanwhile,
you must remaining alert and guard
yourself against the attacks of adult
spider. Other dangers face you as
well, and there are “Rings and
Mysteries” to be gathered.

If you survive—and that will
take some doing—you may des¬
cend all the way to the fifth level,
where you’ll find Tetragorn’s secret
lair and Level Three of the game.
Surrounded by graves, you’ll face
Zombie Spiders, the Mother of
Spiders, and Tetragorn himself.

NECROMANCER is a one-per¬
son game, so you and your friends
will have to take turns. It features a
well appreciated pause option,
perfect for unexpected phone calls,
trips to the refrigerator or bathroom.
NECROMANCER was published on
disk about six years ago. The
graphics aren’t really noticeably

superior to those of the older
releases. They’re good—better
than adequate—but they won’t
leave you breathless. Joystick use
is fast and easy, and the wisp-
-which almost seems to seek out
and destroy the ogres on its own,
as if attracted to them—works well.
The instruction book is Atari's usual
eight-page fold-out pamphlet; it
isn’t elaborate, but it contains
everything you need to know.

NECROMANCER is a good,
fast, enjoyable game that becomes
progressively more difficult the
farther you get into it—which is
exactly the way a game should be
organized. It should provide the
dedicated player with an unusual
set of challenges for a long time to
come.

Patrick H. Adkins is the author
of the Ace Fantasy Special Lord of
the Crooked Paths. He now writes
on an 800XL named Kalliope.

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3.5" disk boxes hows io disks $.95
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Boss $19.95

Nebuius $34.95
Garfield $32.95
Mad Mix Game $29.95
Clever & Smart $34.95
Pandora $34.95
Bionic Commando $34.95
Mickey Mouse $39.95

1-800-458-2715

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 65

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

FINAL ASSAULT

Reviewed by Don Elmore

Can a veritable couch potato
conquer the Eiger or the Jungfrau?
With a modicum of assistance from
Epyx, I can. Almost. Epyx’s Final
Assault can convert someone suf¬
fering from acrophobia into a
Horace Benedict de Saussure (the
wealthy Swiss scholar who reached
the summit of Mont Blanc in 1787).

The game box notes a choice
of six different trails, with three
levels of terrain on each trail;
beginner, intermediate and advan¬
ced. “Hat Trick” and “Edge of
Fright” are relatively easy to tra¬
verse. “Side-Burner” and “Con¬
sider Me Gone” are intermediate,
and “Footloose” and “Knuckle¬
head” are the hardest. But, if (like
me) you have never climbed any¬
thing more challenging than to the
upper bunk in bunk beds, there is
also a game option called the
“Training Course.” The training trail
is a scaled down version of the
more serious climbs, with some
very accommodating differences. It
is a real climb, complete with a
glacier to cross and a combination
of ice and rock cliffs to scale before
you reach the summit. But, you
don’t have to concern yourself with
packing your own rucksack (it is
done for you) and you are afforded
continuous on-screen prompts to
teach you the fundamentals of
climbing. And best of all, there are
no fatal falls on the training climb.

At the end of the instruction
booklet, there is a three page
glossary of climbing terms which
not only fully explain the equipment
you will be using, but also provide
the special terms that describe the
terrain to be covered. Between the
glossary and the training trail, even I
was able to actually complete both
of the easier climbs and one of the
intermediate ones. I seriously

recommend that you take the
training climb several times before
actually choosing one of the six
professional trails. When you
decide that you are finally ready for
the big time, you must first select
your trail(s). You can include up to
three climbs in any one trek. I
started off with one per trek and am
now up to two. After you decide
how many climbs you want, you
are then provided a screen that
shows the six different trails. The
routes are clearly marked and the
levels of difficulty are indicated by
symbols at the bottom of the
screen (circles for the two easiest,
squares for the two intermediate
and diamonds for the two hardest).
Using the joystick, move the poin¬
ter to the trail you want and hit the
fire button and a box appears
giving the route’s name, elevation
in meters, level of difficulty and the
estimated time it should take you to
reach the top.

After you have selected the
route (or routes) you proceed to
the supply screen where you su¬
pervise the packing of your gear.
Your rucksack is automatically
supplied with a basic load of pro¬
visions and climbing gear...and
weighs in at 18 kilograms (39.6 lbs).
You decide what you actually need.
A long trek will require more food
and camping gear, while on a short
trek, you can include more
luxuries....like a bottle of cham¬
pagne to open at the summit, for
example. As you add (or discard)
articles for the rucksack, you will
see the weight in kilos change to
reflect the total weight after each
selection. The instructions recom¬
mend that you keep the total
weight at no more than 25 kilos (55
lbs), otherwise you are certain to
tire out more quickly and much

more likely to slip on a cliff or fall
through the ice. There are also
dialog boxes that prompt you to
choose your departure time (the
default is 9:00am), and whether you
are making the climb in summer or
winter.

Now you are ready for the
actual climb, which consists of
three basic movements; hiking &
jumping, climbing on ice and
climbing on rock. All movements
are controlled by the joystick and
here is where it sometimes gets
tricky for me. Hiking (or walking on
level ice or ground) is effected by
moving the joystick handle steadily
back and forth (left & right). When
hiking, you are always carrying your
ice ax, and by pressing the fire
button, you test the ground or ice. If
the ice breaks and you are standing
before a small chasm (I’ve yet to
find a large one), you can jump
over it by pushing up on the
joystick handle. Sooner or later you
will come to your first ice cliff and
the instructions recommend stop¬
ping just before getting there and
putting your crampons on. I have
yet to learn how to stop just before,
and usually find myself at the bot¬
tom of the ice cliff, ready to start
climbing. So, I use a strap (from my
pack) to attach myself to the ice
wall, put on my crampons and then
begin the climb. Climbing the ice
cliffs requires a different set of
rather intricate joystick moves.
Pushing the handle up digs the
axes in the cliff wall (and you clearly
hear them “clink,” as they grip the
ice. Pulling the handle down sets
the first foot, pressing the fire but¬
ton pulls yourself up, and finally
pulling down on the handle again
sets the second foot. It takes some
time (at least it has for me) to
master climbing an ice cliff. And, if
you are on the regular trails, and
get careless, you will fall, and you
can watch yourself tumble down
(spinning head over heels) all the
way to the bottom of the cliff. Quite
a sight, I guarantee.

Page 66

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

ATARI ST/MEGA

CN REVIEW

Now, the last maneuver, climb¬
ing a steep rock face is even more
complicated than climbing an ice
cliff. The rock face is the ultimate
test of your skill as a climber.
Usually the first thing you do is take
off the crampons....you can’t climb
rock with crampons, you know. If
you don’t believe me, try it and see
what happens! So, strap yourself to
the rock face, open your pack and
click on the crampons and then put
on your soft shoes and helmet (and
take out the chalk). The helmet is to
protect you from falling rocks...and
they do! At the bottom right of the
rock face, are a pair of hands and a
pair of feet. You are shown facing
the rock, seen from the rear. The
fire button selects a hand or foot by
continuously cycling clockwise
around your extremities. Pick the
extremity you want to move and
move the joystick handle up or
down, depending on whether you
want to reach up or down, or step
up or down. After you have “set”

both hands and feet, press the fire
button while moving the handle in
the direction you want to go, and
you will move there. Oh, you
dodge boulders by moving the
handle away from the falling boul¬
der’s path. You should always try
for the most secure holds, and here
is where the extra set of hands and
feet icons at the bottom right of the
screen come in handy. If any of the
extremities are poorly positioned,
the icon(s) will be flashing. There
are also special instructions for
using the rope.

If you packed one.

Throughout the trek, you can
“read” the right side of the screen
and see how much time has
elapsed and how high you have
climbed. There is also an icon of
the climber’s face, and from time to
time, it will come to life and shiver
or motion to its mouth and do other
things. Those are not-to-subtle
hints that you are cold, hungry or
sleepy...etc. I urge you to play

close attention to the face icon...if it
advises that you are cold, you had
better stop where you are (use the
strap if you are on an ice cliff or
rock face), open your pack and put
on a sweater or gloves....or what¬
ever it takes to resolve whichever
deficiency you are experiencing.

So, graphics? They are particu¬
larly good. Playability? Well, I seem
to have trouble climbing out of
crevasses, and it is also difficult for
me to find the most secure hand
and foot holds when climbing the
rock faces. But, that may be due to
my customary suffering of digitary
psychomotor retardation. I per¬
sonally find that this is not one of
the computer games that I auto¬
matically boot up at the beginning
of each computer session...rather it
is an enjoyable game that I try from
time to time. I think that if you have
any interest at all in climbing, or
even any curiosity about it, then this
game is definitely a worth while
investment.

Coming, Next Month
in Current Notes:

An Interview with Matt
Singer, by H. Earl Hill and
Dennis P. McGuire

Freeware and Shareware,

by Derek Mihocka

Stellar Crusade, by Milt
Creighton

Flexcessory, by D.B. Maxwell
Orbiter, by Roger Abram

Getting Words Perfect, by

Pamela Rice Hahn

Fun for the Young Set, by

Brian Miller

Home Casino, by Don Elmore

Mega Tweety, by Charles
Crook

Elite, by Milt Creighton
and much, much, more.

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April 1989

Current Notes

Page 67

WAACE CLUB CORNER

This space is made available to WAACE member clubs for their use in publicizing activities. Material for this column
must be in the hands of the Clubs Editor by the 5thth of each month. Send copy to Ed Seward, PO Box 2699, Merrifield,
VA 22116. Material can also be uploaded to the ARMUDIC BBS.

NOVATARI

Northern Virginia Atari Users’Group

President:.Bonnie Little.703-444-2419

ST Vice President:.Ed Seward.703-573-3044

8bit Vice president: ....Nina Kraucunas.703-250-3572

Secretary:.Edmund Bedsworth.. 703-536-5958

Treasurer:.Gary Purinton.703-476-8391

NEW MEMBERS: Dues are $2Q/year/family which includes a subscrip¬
tion to CURRENT NOTES and access to more activities, Join at the main
meeting or at a chapter meeting or by sending $20, payable to
NOVATARI, to Edmund Bedsworth, 6617 Rosecroft, Falls Church, VA
22043.

NOVATARI MAIN MEETING: second Sunday of the month at the
Washington Gas Light Building, 6801 Industrial Rd, Springfield, VA. Take
495 to east on Braddock Rd. (620) to south on Backlick Rd (617). Left on
Industrial Rd. Washington Gas Light is the second building on the right.
5:30 Telecom SiG; 6:15 announcements, open forum, dopr prizes; 6:45
VAST and 8BIT SIG meetings.

chapter MEETINGS: ML.Vernon/Hybla Valley, 1st Thursday, 7:30
Contact Ron Peters at 780-0963. Sterling, Sterling Library, 7:30-9:30, 1st
Wed. Contact Richard Gunter at 471-7765.

S.M.A.U.G.

Southern Maryland Atari Users’ Group

President.Herb Scott

Secretary.Fred Brown.301-645-4009

Treasurer.Samuel Schrinar.301-843-7916

MEETINGS: 2nd Thursday, 7:30 pm, John Hanson Middle School in
Waldorf, MD. Traveling thru Waldorf either east or west on Rt 5, exit on
Vivian Adams located 200 ft west of Waldorf Carpets & Draperies and
directly across from the Village Square sign.

NEW MEMBERS: Membership dues are $20 and include a subscription
to CURRENT NOTES. Join at the meeting or send check, payable to
SMAUG, to Sam Schrinar, 2032 Alehouse Court, Waldorf, MD 20601.

F.A.C.E.

Frederick Atari Computer Enthusiasts

President.Chris Rietman.301-791-9170

Vice President.Mike Kerwin.301-845-4477

Treasurer.Buddy Smallwood .... 717-485-4714

MEETINGS: 4th Tuesday, 7 - 9:30 pm, Walkersville HS, MD Route 194,1
mile north of MD Route 26 (Liberty Road). July and August meetings will
be held at St Paul’s Lutheran Church, 14 W. Pennsylvania Ave, Walkers¬
ville, MD.

NEW MEMBERS: Dues are $25/year/family and include a subscription
to CURRENT NOTES. Join at meeting or send check, payable to FACE, to
Buddy Smallwood, PO Box 2026, Frederick, MD 21701.

NEW NUMBER
gvg ARMUDIC BBS
Wilt- ■ ■ ■ 703-450-39 mmsm

300/1200/2400 Baud, 8 and 16 bit

libcess to the (BBS requires a fee m addition to the
dues. This fee fsIQViATARI members

aind $7-50 for members of other user groups. BBS

• payable to AfiOVA-
TARI” and sent to: Ed Seward, PO Box 2699,

• KlerriHetd; VA22116. H ' v

W.A.C.U.G.

Woodbridge Atari Computer Users’ Group

President.Lou Praino.703-221-8193

VP.Ron Dunn.703-494-4260

8Bit VP.Darrell Stiles.703-494-9819

ST VP.Bill Parker..703-680-3941

Treasurer.David Waalkes.703-490-1225

Secretary.Jim Sawici.703-670-3527

Librarian.Frank Bassett.703-670-8780

MEETINGS: 7-9PM, Community Room, Potomac Branch, Prince
William County Library, Opitz Blvd., Woodbridge, VA. Entering Wood-
bridge from either North or South on Route 1, proceed to t22he
intersection of Route 1 and Opitz Blvd. (opposite Woodbridge Lincoln-
Mercury). Turn West on Opitz and take first left turn into the library’s
parking lot. The Community Room is located to your left immediately
upon entering the main building. Meeting Dates: Feb 14, March 28, Apr
18, May 16, June 20.

NEW MEMBERS: Initial membership fee is $10 plus $1 monthly dues.

Renewals are $20 per year, payable as of 1 January. Membership
includes a subscription to CURRENT NOTES. Join at meeting or send
check, payable to WACUG, to David Waalkes, 1302 Oregon Ave,
Woodbridge, VA 22191.

M.A.C.C.

Maryland Atari Computer Club

President.Jim Hill.301-461-7556

Vice President.Dan Honick.301-356-6453

Treasurer.John Cromwell.301 -356-6453

Secretary.Bob Brent.301 -254-3896

8-bit Librarian.Jim Hill (acting)

ST Librarian.Tim Caldwell.301-687-1413

Newsletter Ed.Charles Smeton.301-465-8628

Corresponding Secy .Cam Whetstone.301 -486-2609

MEETINGS: last Tuesday, 6:30 pm, Pikesville Library, 1 mi. east on
Reisterstown Rd from Exit 20 off the Baltimore Beltway.

NEW MEMBERS: Club Dues are $22/year and include a subscription to
CURRENT NOTES. Join at meeting or send check, payable to MACC, to
James Hill, 8591 Wheatfield Way, Ellicott City, MD, 21043.

Page 68

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

G.R.A.S.P.

Greater Richmond Atari Support Program

President.Mickey Angell.804-744-3307

Vice President.Terry Barker.804-379-8175

Secretary.Tom Marvin.804-233-6155

MEETINGS: 2nd and 4th Thursday, at La Prade Library, 2730 Hicks Rd.
Dues: $20 per year (no CURRENT NOTES). _

M.A.S.T.

Meade Atari ST Users Group

President.Bob Johnson.301-674-8762

Vice Pres.Keith Drewke.301-551-2662

Secretary.John Corkran.301-255-1674

PD Librarian.Harold Beck III.301-672-1793

BBS.Thomas Hutchinson .301-840-5045

MEETINGS - Third Wednesday of each month in the SeaLandAir rec
center on Fort Meade from 1830 to 2100 hours. Call Bob Johnson any
evening for further information.

MAILING ADDRESS: All correspondence, including membership
renewals, changes of address, etc. should be sent to: MAST, c/o Bob
Johnson, 1616B Forrest Ave, Ft Meade, MD 20755.

NEW MEMBERS. Dues are $27/year and include subscription to
CURRENT NOTES and unlimited DL and message activity on the Tangent
Line BBS. Send name, address, phone number, and check to above
address or join at any meeting.

A.U.R.A.

Atari Users Regional Association

President.Niel Johnson.301-540-1794

8-bit VP.Steve Preston.301-972-9632

16-bit VP.Ira Horowitz.301-421 -9507

Treasurer.Bob Brock.301-268-2554

Membership.Bill Brown.301-279-7537

8-bit Librarian.Wayne Heiden.301-330-0130

16-bit Librarian.Joe Russek.301 -946-7593

Facilities.Home’ Reitwiesner... 301-588-4802

MEETINGS - Third Thursday of each month in the Multipurpose Room
at GRACE EPISCOPAL SCHOOL. The school is on the east side of
Conecticut Avenue, 1/4 mi. north of the Connecticut Avenue (North) Exit
from 1-495. Library and swap table sales begin at 7:15, the meeting
begins at 7:30. We have separate XL and ST demonstrations. There will
be 8-bit and 16-bit door prizes.

CORRESPONDENCE. All correspondence, including membership
renewals, changes of address, etc. should be sent to: AURA, P. O. Box
7761, Silver Spring, MD 20910. AURA cannot guarantee CURRENT
NOTES subscription fulfillment unless the member provides written
confirmation of address changes, renewals, etc. to the address given
above.

NEW MEMBERS. Dues are $25/year and include subscription to
CURRENT NOTES. Send name, address, phone number, and check to
above address.

WAACE GOINGS ON

Welcome Aboard, MAST!

John Barnes, WAACE Chairman

The Washington Area Atari Computer Enthusiasts
welcome the Meade Atari ST Users Group, also known as
MAST, to our confederation. The MAST folks are jumping
right in with AtariFest and we look for increased support
for members on our eastern front. I extracted the following
material from MAST’s application letter to help introduce
WAACE members to the new group:

Meade Atari ST Users Group

Bob Johnson, MASTpresident

Basic information about MAST is given in the club’s
box on this page. Membership is open to all Atari ST
owners (and 8-bit owners, too, however we primarily
serve the ST community) in the area, but for obvious
reasons we must cater to the military and civilian DoD
employees of Fort Meade and the attendant organiza¬
tions. (Currently our membership is about 60/40 military—
DoD/non-gov’t civilians). We do plan for vigorous growth
during the coming year...we are a new group, and
therefore we are learning as we go, and are expanding at
a gradually increasing rate. By the time you get this, we
will probably have added a couple of new members to the
group who are still “undecided” (we have about the
double the membership in unpaid “spectators”).

Membership includes a subscription to Current Notes,
unlimited DL and message activity on the Tangent Line
BBS, a monthly newsletter, discounts at some local Atari
dealers, discount prices on our PD software library disks,
and of course, personalized assistance from MAST mem¬
bers for most any computer related problem. At our
monthly meetings, we demo current and/or important

commercial and Public Domain software and hardware.
For example, in February, we have an excellent MIDI demo
planned, a demo of Calamus DTP software, and also a
demo of Spectre 128, the latest MAC emulator. We also
show off the latest in game software at the meetings, and
have a hardware/software swap. We are also vociferously
anti-piracy, and insist that those we associate with also
are aware of the harm software piracy does to the ST
community.

We are also tentatively planning a mini-FEST at the
Meade PX store sometime this spring, but it is very
tentative at this time. If you have any questions, feel free to
call. Thanks in advance for your support.

AURA

Me/ A. Johnson, A UR A President
Greetings from AURA! The new year has seen new
interest and a new cabinet, eager to share the fun and
usefulness of both the 8-bit and ST/Mega Ataris.

February’s meeting theme was “Income Tax Applica¬
tions with your Atari”. Several new members were on hand
with the general membership to see demonstrations on
many of the programs available for this annual ritual. We
look forward to March’s “Atari Word Processing—Old and
New” theme and April’s “Telecommunications” theme.

The new officers encourage members—both new and
seasoned — to attend and participate in AURA’S upcom¬
ing meetings.

GRASP

Mickey Angeli, GRASP President
We had a good turnout at our last meeting on Feb. 9.
That is our ST demo night. We demo midi keyboards. We
brought in three keyboards so that others could seethe

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 69

difference. We used Music Studio 88. Our ciub has 45
members and we had 30 people to show up for this
meeting! At the end, we had graphic demos and midi
demonstration music with the lights turned down low. It
was a nice demo. On March 9, we will demo Falcon. We
are planning to hook up a null modem so that two
combatants can play or demo. Maybe we will have a little
midi music in the background. It sure peps up the demo.

WAACE Executive Board

John Barnes, WAACE Chairman

The WAACE board met on 23 February at the Tysons/
Pimmit Regional Library. NOVATARI, AURA, and MAST
were represented at the meeting. The Meade Atari ST
group’s membership application was unanimously
approved.

AtariFest ‘89: Final negotiations are underway with
Fairfax HS for a date in October. The available dates
include 7 and 8 October or 21 and 22 October. Check into
ARMUDIC and GENie for the latest news. Gary Purinton
and Bob Johnson are in charge of our advertising
campaign. At the moment we are also looking into matters
like competing shows, support from Atari Corp, seminar
presentations, a show theme, banquet speakers, etc., etc.
We welcome suggestions on any of these topics.

NOVATARI Notes

by Bonnie Little, President

Well folks, it looks like a lot of things are happening
with Novatari right now. We’ve barely settled in the new
officers when

suddenly we spring a new SYSOP and phone number
on those of you who use the BBS. As of April 1 the bulletin
board moves (or moved, I don’t know when you’ll read
this) to (703) 450-3916 and we have a new SYSOP, Scott
Ogden. Those of you who haunt the board have probably
seen his name or met him in chat. He’s an active member
of Novatari, being a technical advisor and the president of
the Sterling chapter! We all thank him for volunteering to
do this job. We also thank Ed Seward for all the hard work
he’s put in over the past 3 years as Sysop and Remote
Sysop before that.

Future meetings look exciting. We're looking for¬
ward to presentations of an on-line slide creation system,
an instructional program on cardiac arrest used by hospi¬
tals and emergency medical personel, and lots more still
in the planning stages. I hope to be able to let you know
the programs for upcoming meetings in advance starting
next month.

Novatari Library News

by Roy Brooks

I never cease to be amazed at the quality of essentially
free software we have available to us. There are many
programers out there still working on all kinds of pro¬
grams. Sometimes programmers like G. Martin of Beth-
esda, MD will send in programs like his Yankee 21 and
Hoidem Poker games, other times I get downloads from
the commercial online services, but usually I just trade
disks with user groups or private individuals. If you have
software you want published in our library, go ahead and
send it to me (Roy Brooks, 4020 Travis Parkway, Anna-
dale, VA 22003 703/750-0146).

There are 11 new disks listed in the NOVATARI ad.
Four games disk were listed in the last issue. The first was
#24 Ho/dem Poker\nc\uCmQ new documentation files on
the back of the disk. Games disks #25-#27 are in 1050
enhanced density. I put together several card games with
some brief documentation on #25 but you need to know
the basic game format (see Holye). The card games vary
from monochrome to full color graphics. Whist, Crazy
Eights, Euchre, Solitaireanti Canfie/dasQ included. Games
#26 has three games from David Castell the author of
Xlent’s First Word Processor and Print Shop interface.
These games are special arcade type video games; two
are variations of A Voyage Through Time anti the last one
is a Turmoil type game. The last games disk #27 is a
collection of space games: the multilevel Gauntlet, Star
Isle like, and several Defenders games.

The next category of disks being added are six Utility
disks #44-#50. By the way, sometimes buyers will send
back a disk that doesn’t work or one that they can’t figure
out how to use. If it doesn’t work, we will return a working
copy. One has to be able to figure out some programs
from very little or, in some cases, no documentation. One
disk comes to mind, Utility #43 GAD, Graphics Art
Department, has little documentation. But if you experi¬
ment, you will learn to use an excellent drawing program
(push the space bar to reveal the menu.) I don’t have the
time or the ability to explain how to use all these programs.
Part of the fun and some of the frustration of PD software
is figuring out how to get the best use out of these
programs.

I’m going to write about the new utility disks but I don’t
want to forget to mention that we have upgraded Utility
#40 Signmaker, now the 1.3 version that has several new
features added to a very good Page Designer like
program. I’ll write a separate article on this program for a
later CN issue.

Utility #44 has many ARC-ALF utilities for file com¬
pression and decompression. This disk was not put into
the Telecom category because these archive techniques
should be used for backup storage. Utility #45, MYCOPR
2.1, is a good copy program that is Happy and US Doubler
compatible. Utility #46, MYDOS 4.50, is an excellent all
density DOS with many features and good documentation
(actual disk is in single density.) Utility #47 is a 48K PAD
(Pixel Artist Deluxe) drawing program that is excellent and
has neat drop down documentation built in. Utility #48 is a
Reference Manual for BASIC and ML programers. It is a
double-sided disk with 15 chapters and 3 appendixes of
Atariwriter files that print out page after page of neatly
formatted documentation and technical information. The
unarcalf.com on disk #48 is to be used to unarc these files
into three single density disks sides to be printed or
viewed. Utility #49 contains a couple hundred Print Shop
Icons on both sides. The last Utility is #50, a potpourri of
1020 plotter utilities and printer dumps.

The next time I write I’ll have more software to include
and I’ll try to describe more of our library’s wares. One
addition for sure will be the new XE DOS—another double
density DOS, that is also double-sided, for the XF 551.
Keep on computing! If you have suggestions about
software that would be good for the library write to me or
leave a message on ARMUDIC (703 450-3901).

Page 70

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

NOVATAEI XIL//XIE IPID LIIIBEAEy

J

DEMO

1. Miscellaneous

2. Movie Maker Clips

3. Heavy Metal Art

4. Miscellaneous

5. Desktop DOS +
Demos

6. VizPics

7. Mandelbrot factal
graphics

8. HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
TO THE GALAXY

9. WIZARD of OZ

10. ADVENTURERS

COMPANION

EDUCATION

1. Mathematics

2. Primary Language

3. Teachers’ Toolbox

4. Word Builder 1.0

5. Animated stories

6. Geography

7. Bio+Chem with touch
typing

8. Basic Math

9. Higher Math and
Language

10. The Cell

11. Spelling Bee

12. Math Game

13. WORD GAMES

GAMES

1. Text Adventures I

2. Gambling

3. Simulations

4. Mazes

5. Parlour Games

6. Graphics

7. Action! Games

8. Arcade Look-A-Likes

9. Text Adventures II

10. Text Adventures III

11. Surf’s Up

12. Ski King

13. 20 BASIC Games

14. Super Quiz A & B

15. Two Graphic
Adventure Games

16. Space Lords

17. Pinball Games

18. Machine Language
Games

19. Dandy Dungeon

20. Holdem Poker

21. Americas Cup

22. Boulder Dash Const.
Set

23. Wheel of Fortune &
Backgammon

24. Yankee 21 (Blackjack
game)

25. Card Games

26. Voyages Through
Time

27. Space Games

LANGUAGE

1. Fig-FORTH

2. ACTION! source
codes (cf. GAMES 7)

3. ACTION! Graphic
Demos

4. ACTION! Utility
Programs

5. ACTION! Modules #1

6. ACTION! Modules #2

7. BASIC XL-REF Base

8. ACTION! Modules #3

9. KERMIT telecom

10. TURBO BASIC

11. Pascal Sampler

12. Searcher XL Turbo

13. Turbo Basic for
400/800

14. C Language

15. Turbo Basic
Documentation

MUSIC

1. TV/MOVIE Themes

2. ROCK

3. JAZZ

4. BASIC with animation

5. Ams Player.

12 Rock Songs

6. Ams Player.

14 Movie/Video
Themes

7. Ams Player.

16 Oldies

8. Ams Player.

18 Classics

9. Rami30 AMS Beetles’
Songs

10. MUSIC COMPOSER
Songs

11. POKEY PLAYER

12. MUSIC MAJOR

UTILIITY

1. MISCELLANEOUS
introduction

2. Printers

3. DOS 2.5

4. Directory & Label
Printer

5. Graphics Trilogy

6. Copymate XE

7. SCOPY sector copier

8. Translator Disk

9. 256K Upgrade

10. Daisy-Dot NLQ

11. Dos 2.6

12. MACHDOS 2.1

13. Print Shop Editor

14. Easy Find

15. Print Shop Icons

16. TEXTPRO 1.1

17. Print Shop Icons

18. Touch Edit

19. DOS 4.0

20. Graphics

21. 130XE upgrades +
Utilities

22. HI-RES 130
(graphics)

23. Rainbow DOS

24. Font Master

25. 3-D CAD

26. ADELAIDE SYMBOLIC
DISASSEMBLER

27. DB’s & Spreadsheet

28. Graphic Utilities & Pics

29. String Magic

30. Print Shop Icons

31. Hacker’s Toolkit

32. Weekly Scheduler

33. Textpro 2.5r (telecom)

34. Print Shop Utility

35. Monitor/Debugger

36. Diet & Nutrition

37. General Ledger

38. Super Copiers

39. Atari Writer Drivers

40. Signmaker 1.3

41. Billboard Maker

42. Daisy Dot II

43. Graphics Art
Department

44. ARC-ALF Compres¬
sion Utilities

45. MYCOPR 2.1

46. MYDOS 4.50

47. Pixel Artist Deluxe

48. Atari Reference
Manual

49. Print Shop Icons

50. 1020 Printer Utilities

TELECOMMUNI¬

CATIONS

1. 850 Interface

2. 835/1030 Modem

3. MPP Modem
4A. AMODEM 7.2
5A&B Chameleon Terminal

Emulator

6. 1030&850 Express
(3.0 & 2.1)

7. Data Comm

8. AMIS XM10 BBS
program

9. AMODEM 7.4 +
Rverter

10. FOREM XE BBS

11. AMODEM V7.52

The price for mail
orders is $3 per disk plus
$1 for postage and
handling for every 3
disks. Send checks, pay¬
able to NOV ATARI, to

Jeff King,

10033 Clearfield Ave,
Vienna, VA 22180.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 71

When it comes to publishing on the ST, no one does it

Better than Fleet Street and YOU!

Your wait for a full featured bug-free Desk
Top Publishing program ended when you
discovered Fleet Street Publisher 2.0. Now
your publications can have the extraordinary
impact that only a Professional Desk Top Pub¬
lishing program can give them.

You can begin creating impressive newslet¬
ters, advertisements, business reports, bulletins
immediatly with the most advanced Desk Top
Publishing program available for the Atari ST.
Fleet Street Publisher 2.0 has the features you
want at a price you won’t believe (Read about
MichTron’s Special Introductory Offer be¬
low!!).

Fleet Street Publisher 2.0 allows such ad¬
vanced text features as the ability to type di¬
rectly onto the page, or to load text from any
ASCD word-processing file. This includes files

created on IBMs and compatibles. Word proc¬
essing control codes can be stripped out auto¬
matically.

Automatic Hyphenation (by algorithm),
paragraph and column justification, text kerning,
variable selectable leading, and proportional
spacing make text manipulation a breeze. There
is also a search and replace feature. Adding to
your layout potential are line and box drawing
tools that allow multiple line weights and shades.
You can even combine these with v ariable back¬
ground tones and shadings.

You may utilize the included typefaces in
varying sizes from4 to 216 points with 1 Meg of
memory. The package includes a complete li¬
brary of ready-to-use images, or you can easily
import graphic screens and scanned images
from other software products. There is also a

Pixel Editor for creating, adapting, and/or touch¬
ing-up existing art work. A number of printer
drivers from postscript to dot matrix printers
provide excellent final copies of your finished
work.

Now MichTron makes an extraordinary
offer. We know that many of you have already
purchased Desk Top Publishing programs; we
also know that you deserve and want the best
available. So, until March 31,1989, if you send
us the Copyright page from any Desk Top Pub¬
lishing program manual, we will send a copy of
Fleet Street Publisher 2.0 for only $50.00, a
$149,95 value for only $50.00. Don’t wait,
order your copy today!

MirtiTrori

S76 S. Telegraph, Pontiac, Ml 48053
Orders and information (313) 334-5700

I Joppa

PO B6k 226 Joppi, MD2i08$
11)11111111

Hours: Monday through Saturday 10AM to 8PM (EST)

Terms: MC/Visa, Money Order, Cetified Funds or COD shipped
promptly. Personal Checks allow 2 weeks.

Ship: Software/Accessory add $2.50 S/H fee, FREE on orders of
$100 or more or on orders of 4 software titles. COD add $3.50.
(301)653-6040 All other Inquiries

Supra 2400 Modems $128.95
w/Cable $135.95

Spectre 128 $159.95 w/ROMS $279.00
Calamus DTP $186.95

Atari ST Software

All Aboard!.$17.95

Analyze!.$24.95

Annals of Rome.$27.45

Arkanoid.$23.95

Artie Fox.$15.45

Aussie Joker Poker.$33.45

Base Two.$39.95

Battleship.$20.95

BBS Express 1.30.$52.95

Better Dead than Alien ...$23,95

Bridge 5.0.$24.95

Carrier Command.$29.95

Centerfold Squares.$20.95

Chessmaster 2000.$29.95

Circuit Maker 2.0.$67.45

Combat Course.$26.95

Cyber Control 1.1.$39.95

Cyber Paint 2.0.$51.95

Cyber Studio.$58.95

Cyber Texture.$33.95

Cyber VCR.$45.95

Day at the Races.$20.95

dbMan 5.0.$149.95

DejaVu II.$33.45

DevPac ST.$67.45

Downhill Challenge.$26.95

Drafix 1 w/Dot Plotter.. $119.95

Dungeon Master.$24.95

Dungeon Master Sequel..$19.95

(Chaos Strikes Back)

Dung. Master Editor.

Easy Draw 2.3.

Easy Draw ’Superchg’....

Elite.

Falcon.

First Word Plus 2.02.

Flash 1.6.

Flexcessory.

Fontz.

G+Plus.

GATO.

GFA Basic 3.04.

Gold Rush.

Gunship.

HiSoft Basic.

Interlink ST 1.85.

Jet w/Japan Scenery

Juggler II.

Karateka..

Kings Quest IV.

Kosmic Krieg.

Laser ’C’ Compiler 2.0
$119.95
Laser DB.

Atari ST Software

LDW Power.$94.95

Leisure Suit Larry II.$33.45

Manhunter:New York.$33.45

Mavis Beacon Typing....$33.45
Microleague Baseball II.$39.95

MultiDesk.$22.95

Music Studio ’88.$39.95

NeoDesk 2.0
$33.95

O.I.D.S.$21.95

Overlord.$27.45

Pagestream.$119.95

pc Ditto.$64.95

Phasar 6.0.$59.95

Platoon.$26.95

Police Quest II.$33.45

PrintMaster Plus.$24.95

ProCopy 1.60.$23.95

Prospero ’C’.$97.45

Prospero Fortran.$124.95

Prospero Pascal.$97.45

Publisher ST.$82.95

Revolver 1.1.$33.95

- Saved.$26.95

Shadow.$20.95

Shadowgate.$33.45

Sinbad.$33.45

Spectrum 512.$45.95

Space Quest II.$33.45

Space Station Oblivion...$15.45

Space Racer.$15.45

Starglider II.$29.95

Stellar Crusade.$35.95

ST Control 1.5.$59.95

Strip Poker II.$27.45

Sub Battle Simulator.$15.45

Summer Challenge.$10.95

Switchback.$58.95

Tax Advantage.$39.95

Touch-Up

$122.95

Typhoon Thompson.$23.95

Turbo Jet (HP Drivers) ..$27.45

Turbo ST 1.4.$34.95

Unispec 1.11.$42.95

Univ. Item Selector 2.$14.95

Univited.$33.45

Virus.$20.95

War In Middle Earth.$33.45

Warship (Limited).$29.95

Winter Challenge.$10.95

Word Up 1.30.$50.95

Word Writer ST.$50.95

Zany Golf.$27.45

Software/Hardware
Dr .T’s Midi Software

Copyist I.$59.95

Copyist II.$165.95

Copyist III.$239.95

Fingers.$48.95

KCSvl.6.$149.95

Keys!...$48.95

Level II......$209.95

MRS v 1.1.$38.95

Phantom.$178.95

Samplemaker.$179.95

Tunesmith.$94.95

Accessories

MegaTouch (Kbd Springs)$8.95

Mouse Pad.$5.95

ST Books

3D Graphics Program.$20.95

Basic Training Guide.$12.95

Disk Drives Inside/Out.... $20.95

GEM Program Reference$15.95

Internals.$15.95

Peeks & Pokes.$12.95

Tricks & Tips.$15.95

The Atari ST Book.$13.45

Practical Solutions

Drive Master.$36.95

Monitor Master.$37.95

Mouse Master.$29.95

Tweety Board.$44.95

Video Key.$74.95

Hardware

EZ RAM II.$104.95

ICD Host Adaptors.$94.95

Supra Host Adaptors.$94.95

Supra 30MB Drive.$609.95

Indus Disk Drives

GTS 100.$189.95

GTS 100X.$179.95

GTS 1000.$199.95

Diverse Data Drives

MFD 720.$189.95

MFD 1440.$289.95

European ST Software

1943.$29.95

Afterburner....$29.95

Barbarian II.CALL

Batman.$29.95

Bionic Commando.$29.95

Captain Blood (Euro).$34.95

Circus Games.$34.95

Colossus Chess.$34.95

Crazy Cars II.$29.95

Double Dragon.$29.95

Empire Strikes Back.$29.95

Galdregons Domain.CALL

Gauntlet II.$29.95

Gunship (Europe).$31.95

Hostages.$34.95

Live & Let Die.$29.95

Lombard RAC Rally.$34.95

Nebulus.$29.95

Out Run.$29.95

Operation Wolf...$29.95

Pacmania.$29.95

Purple Saturn Day.$34.95

R-Type.$29.95

Return of the Jedi.$29.95

SDI (Europe).$29.95

Skrull.$34.95

STAC ’Adv. Creator’.$49.95

STOS ’Game Creator’....$42.95

Street Fighter.$29.95

Superman.$29.95

Technocop.$29.95

Times of Lore.$34.95

Turbo Cup.$29.95

Multi-Game Packs

5 Star (5 in 1).$34.95

Action ST (5 in 1).$29.95

Arcade Force 4 (4 in 1)..$34.95
Computer Hits 2 (4 in 1) $29.95

Mega Pak (6 in 1).$34.95

Triad Vol 1 (3 in 1).$39.95

Many other titles in stock
European Mags in Stock

JCP Hard Drive Systems

20MB System $479.00 30MB System $549.00
40MB System $649.00 65MB System $749.00
6 months full + 6 months labor warranty

Seagate 225N (20MB) SCSI Drives $299.00
Seagate 251N (40MB) SCSI Drives $399.00
Seagate 277N (65MB) SCSI Drives $449.00
Seagate 138N (30MB) SCSI Drives $349.00
Seagate 157N (48MB) SCSI Drives $446.00

Seagate MFM & RLL Hard Drives Available
Hard Drive Cases, Host Adaptors, Cables Available

$19.95

$64.95

$97.45

$23.95

$33.45

$64.95

$20.95

$24.95

$24.45

$24.95

$26.95

$64.95

$26.95

$33.45

$50.95

$27.45

$34.95

$32.95

$23.95

$33.45

$27.45

2.0

$49.95

Many Other ST Titles in Stock

Most west coast orders shipped from California for faster service.
FREE Shipping on Software/Accessory orders of $100 or more.
NO Credit Card Surcharges on Software/Accessory items.
OUR 800 number reaches Canadian Atari ST owners.

Store Location
111 Old Court Rd
Baltimore, MD 21208
Pikesville

Same LOW prices!!!

CURRENT NOTES ST ILIIIBICaVICY

SEPTEMBER 1988

#263: ST XFormer, V2.2. Atari XL/XE
Emulator program.

#264: ST XFormer Utilities.

#265: VANTERM, Ver. 3.7. Terminal
Emulator w/xmodem, ymodem, vidtex graph.
#268D: The Planets. 51 pictures provide
graphical tour of the solar system.

#269: Mono Games No. 6. (Anduril, Bal-
lerburg, Diamond Miner, Invaders, Snafu
Principle. Plus monochrome emulator pro¬
gram.

#270: Quiz-Plus. Let your ST teach you.
sample lessons. (C) No MEGA.

OCTOBER 1988

#271: Lambert Pics No. 3. 12 Degas
elite pics.

#272: ALF Pics. 11 digitized pics of Alf.
#273: Games No. 15. Hacmanm, Jump-
man, Escape (C)

#274: Games No. 16. Midway Battles,
Hero! VI.0, (C)

#275: Air Warrier, V0.8. Flight simulator
program for private practice or multiplayer
aerial combat on GEnie.

#276: Disk Cataloger and Label
Printer. Shareware by Saraware.

#277D: GNU C Compiler, by Free Soft¬
ware Foundation, (C) 1988.

#278: Atari ST Applications Program¬
ming (C). Source and programs from book
by same name.

#279: Atari SLM804 Laser Disk. Diabol
Emulator 1.2, GDOS Boot 1.2, LCamelot
font.

NOVEMBER 1988

#280: Lambert Pics No. 4. 18 Degas

Elite pictures.

#281: Manual Maker. Use GDOS and
GDOS fonts to produce attractive manuals.
#282: Damonoid. (C) Arcade game. NO
MEGA.

#283: Adventure Games. System 5,

Once A King, El Bozo’s City Out of Bounds.
#284: Desk Acc No.3. Mouse doubler,
mouse editor, address book, Double-click
software’s Clock, Formatter, Stuffer.

#285D: Star Trek (AVS).

#286D: California Raisins (AVS).
#287D: Miami Vice (AVS).

#288, #289, #290, #291: GNU C

Source Code: Four disk set includes Make
and Other Utilities, Assembler, Compiler,
header files, DIFF source and a collection of
documentation.

DECEMBER 1988

#292: Lambert Pics No. 5. Spectrum:
2kittens, blackbird, chipmunk, fox, owl;
Degas Elite: drag 108, dragcol, dragcovl, dra-
gon2.

#293: Dungeon Master Maps.. Maps
and a cut’n’paste spell chart to aid you in
your quest in Dungeon Master.

#294: Kid Games No. 3 (C). Kid Publish
and Kid Shapes.

#295 Sticker (M). German disk labeling
program with graphic images.

#296: Stacatto. Musical quiz game. Just
listen or try and guess the song names as
quickly as possible.

#297: Amaze. Maze Construction Set.
Draw an image boundary and then solve on
screen or print out your maze.

#298: C-Source Disk No. 9. The source
code to ST Xformer VI and V2. (The Atari
XE Basic emulator).

#299: Pascal Disk No. 5. Disk labeling
program and referencing pixels on the
screen.

JAN/FEB 1989

#300: Dual Term. Telecommunication
program by Tony Belding. Text capture or
upload, Xmodem, automatic dialing AND
display of both VT52 and ATASCII graphics.

#301D: LDW Power Demo. Demo of
LDW spreadsheet includes folder of VIP/
LOTUS/LDW templates. DS disk.

#302: Lambert Pics No.6. (C) 17 Degas

Elite pics (3Dship Bogart, F15 F18_3 Frtank
Gablec2 Goali Hansolo, House Kingkool
Kitty Klingnon Monument Porsche Spidey2
Strohs Sun.

#303: Uniterm, Ver 2.0E. Terminal emu¬
lator for the VT102/220 and Tektronix’s 4014
terminals. Includes Xmodem and KERMIT
protocols. Files ARC’d. [Replaces CN #88]
#304: Electronic Jigsaw Puzzle VI.2.
(C) puzzle program for Neo, Degas, and
Tiny pictures (color only). Includes 14 pic¬
tures that can be divided into 25, 64, or 100
pieces.

#305 & 306: Modula2 Language. 2-disk
set contains full working implementation of
Modula2 language (note: Manual not inclu¬
ded but can be obtained from author.)
#307D: Calamus Demo. (M) Demo ver¬
sion of newest DTP program from Europe.
Includes sample documents (some ARC’d).
1Mb, DS disk.

#308D: Runaway Cat. (C) AVS disk with a
PD player so you can see animation and
hear music at the same time. (Note: player
also works with: CN #285, 286, 287.) 1Mb,
DS disk.

#309D, #310D, #31ID: TEX: Text
Document Processor. (M) 3-disk set
contains TEX document processing
language. Drivers provided for EPSON com¬
patible 9-pin dot matrix printers only. Req
monochrome, 1Mb, DS

MARCH 1989

#312: NEO/DEGAS CONTEST WIN¬
NERS. 21 award-winning pictures: tribar,
dragon, midearty, city2042, cougar4, distill,
dungeonl, egore2, fighter, forest, gilbert,
house (shown below), millyw, nitemoon,
panzer, plantfal, pyramid, sailing, shuttle,
snowcat, wayne.

#313: ZOLTAR. (C) Arcade game similar
to Galaxian but gives the user the oppor¬
tunity of defining your own alien ships, their
flight patterns and speed. Produced with

GAME BOX #1 (Color). 30+ games:
Aggravation, Azarian, Backgammon, Barn
Yard, Black Jack, Boggle, Box the Dragon,
Checkers, Daleks, Darts, Escape, Hac-Man,
Hero!, Jigsaw Puzzle, Jumpster, Kid Music,
Kid Notes, Kid Sketch, Kids ABC, Master¬
mind, Monopoly, Mr. Potato, Poker, Roulette,
Scour Four, Sensori, Shanghai Demo, Slots,
Stone Deluxe, Triple Yahtzee, Twixt, Wheel
of Fortune.

GAME BOX #2 (Monochrome). 30+

games: Adventure, Adventure Writing Sys¬
tem, Anduril, Ballerburg, Baseball, Bog,
Breakout, Core Wars, Cribbage, Daleks, Dia¬
mond Miner, Draw Poker, Eamon Adventure
Games, Eliminator, Escape, Hero, Invaders,
Krabat & Krabat2, Mazemaker, Mega Maze,
Megaroids, Monopool, Ogre, Puzzlepuzzle,
Reversi, Runner, Shanghai, Snafu Principle,
Space War, Squixx, Stocks and Bonds,
Trucker. [Box includes CN #54, 80, 135, 153,
212, 213, 230, 240, 257, 269J
CLIP ART BOX #1. 240 screens of clip art

CWBEENT NOTES IPIt) BOXES

plus a variety of clip-art and picture utilities.
[includes CN #158, 159, 160, 239, 245, 246,
247, 248, 249, 250]

NEO/DEGAS PICTURE BOX #1. 185+
examples of Atari Art! Includes Neochrome
painting program. [Includes CN #14, 183, 40,
41, 42, 51, 52, 65, 75, 98]

MUSIC BOX #1. 400+ songs for use with
Music Studio and 30+ songs for use with
Music Construction Set. PD players included.
[Includes CN #60, 114, 196, 197, 198, 199,
216, 216, 237, 244J

C LANGUAGE BOX #1. 2 “C” compilers
plus 8 disks w/sample “C” programs. [In¬
cludes CN #123, 277D, 33, 82, 133, 156, 171,
223, 231, 298J

ST LANGUAGE BOX #1. 8 languages:
Forth-83, Forthmacs VI.1, C Compiler, ICON
Language, XLISP V2, Toy Prolog, Little
Smalltalk, Modula2 and Editor disk. [CN#53,
71, 123, 124, 163, 181, 224, 262, 305, 306]

PASCAL/MODULA2 BOX #1 Sample
programs to help you learn these languages.
[Pascal: CN #31, 49, 93, 111, 177, 299;
Modu!a2: CN #31, 83, 92, 110, 232]
SHOW-OFF BOX #1. Balls & Boinks,
Oxygen, Shiny Bubbles, Spheres, CN Movie,
Steely Boink, ST-Replay, Space Probe,
Cyberscape, Play It!, California Raisins, Miami
Vice. (CN#78D, 90,105, 128, 129, 134, 151,
173, 218, 286, 287) REQUIRES DS DRIVE.

CN PD Boxes include 10 disks and a
plastic case to hold your disks. They are $35
each plus $2 S&H. Order from CN Library,
122 N. Johnson Rd, Sterling, VA 22170.

Page 74

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

OJIBIBIENY NOTES ST ILIIIBIBaVIBY

STOS Basic.

#314: BULLET TRAIN. (C) Arcade game:
pilot your train fast enough to avoid pursu¬
ing train while watching out for dead-end
tracks and box cars blocking your way
(that’s what the “bullet” is for!). Produced
with STOS Basic.

#315: ORBIT. (C) Arcade game similar to
Breakout and Arkanoids. Includes wide
variety of different “bricks” and screens.
Define and save your own screens. Pro¬
duced with STOS Basic.

#316: CASINO-KENO. (C) Version 1.0
faithfully simulates keno games in Nevada
allowing the player to mark on a keno card
up to 15 numbers out of 80. Creates and
saves personal account information to disk
so play can continue later. By Glenn W.
Ulrich.

#317: PROHIBITION. (C) Arcade game
where you have to be quick on the draw
and accurate as you try and make your way
through the ganster infested city streets. By
Tsunoo Rhilty.

#318: ASSISTANT CHEF. (C) Just the
recipe program you’ve been looking for.
Holds up to 300 recipes (42 included). Sort
by recipe number, name, food group, food
type, disk type, rating. Add to and edit
recipes. View and/or print.

#319D: GENERATION GAP DEMO (C
or M) Demo version (10 record limit) of
Generation Gap Genealogy program by Fly¬
ing Pigs Software Double-sided disk..

#320: PRINT MASTER NO. 1. Includes
Borders6, Borders7, BordersS, and BorderslO
for PM and PM+ and a folder of PM_ART
icons. Utilities allow conversion of PM to
Degas and back as well as PM cataloguer
program to view/print an alphabetized cata¬
logue of any PM files.

Ordering Information

The programs on these disks are either
public domain, or copyrighted but distri¬
buted freely to the public, or shareware
products where the author would like an
additional payment if you decide you like
their products. Disk numbers with a ’D’,
e.g. 309D, indicate a double-sided disk.
All disks are guaranteed. If you ever have
a problem with a CN disk, just return it and
we will gladly replace it.

Disks are $4.00 each. Quantity dis¬
counts are available. If you order 10 or
more disks, the price is $3.80 each; 20 or
more disk, $3.60 each; 30 or more disks,
$3.40 each; 40 or more disks, $3.20 each;
and 50 or more disks, $3.00 each. Add $1
per every six disks or fraction thereof for
shipping and handling. Order from:

CN LIBRARY
122 N. JOHNSON RD.
STERLING, VA 22170
(703) 450-4761

APRIL 1989

#321: ST WRITER, VER 3.0 The

llatest version of ST Writer has added some

teriffic new features:

* The “Save” feature in GEM mode has
been altered to prevent saving to an
undesired filename. You must first “Save
As ...” before “Save” is activated.

ft You can now load multiple printer drivers.
XYZ2X.DAT is the default. Others can be
stored on the same disk. Users select the
appropriate printer driver from a list.

☆ Save ASCII is now possible. Files thus
created have a carriage return/line feed at
the end of every line. Top and bottom
margins are set automatically to 0, and
the left to 1.

☆ Non-ST Writer ASCII files now load much,
much, much faster.

ft You can now output ALL of the 256
characters in the character set to your
printer. This means you can now imbed
your printer control codes right in the text
just like Atariwriter.

☆ You may now directly load 8-bit
AtariWriter files from a disk into ST Writer
Elite, and they will be converted to ST
Writer format preserving all formatting
data.

☆ The bug preventing deletion of a tab stop
in GEM mode has been eliminated.

ft Non-ST Writer file containing less than 24
bytes can now be loaded.

#322: SUB CAL. A subset of
ELCAL: The Elementary Calculator, a com¬
mercial product, available from Debonair
Software.

Sub_Cal is a calculator with some extras.
It will compute arithmetic expressions
entered in a human-readable form as e.g.
SQ(SIN(34-2X)-COS(34+2X))-ATN2(B,B-2 A A).
If needed, the expression can then be
modified and recomputed.

Sub_Cal will also compute definite in¬
tegrals (Romberg algorithm), derivatives
(three-point square approximation) or solve
equations (bisection method). It will also
solve polynomial equations up to the third
degree. A simple plotting feature is included
as well.

The program uses the familiar GEM user
interface and comes with an on-line help. It
runs on any Atari ST with color or mono¬
chrome monitor.

The full version of EI_Cal which includes
statistical distributions and user-defined
functions, data buffers (allowing for pro¬
cessing the results of other programs), his¬
tograms and scatter plots, least squares up
to the 6th degree, general data fitting with
any function and function optimization. The
on-line help in Sub_Cal lists the complete
set. If, however, you are a more casual user,
Sub Cal may be adequate for your needs.

El Cal, Debonair Software, P.O.Box
521166, Salt Lake City, UT 84152-1166. The
price ($44) includes shipping and one
update. (Program by J.A. Wrotniak)

ANALOG (ST-LOG) DISKS

#A10 (Jan ‘87) C-manship; Dr., Floppe;
font tricks; slider subroutines; spell binder;
windows part 1.

#A11 (Feb ‘87) C-manship; appointment
calendar; database create prg; money pro¬
gram w/C source; windows part 2.

#A12 (Mar ‘87) C-manship; AS68 Helper
prg; poker dice listing; Score Four prg w/C
source; Midisoft demo prg.

#A13 (Apr ‘87) C-manship; Escher Cubes;
Arc Shell prg; Ray-gracing demo; uniterm-
-terminal emulator; arcx.ttp—unsqueezer prg.
#A14 (May ‘87) C-manship; clock desk
acc; hello.prg; CZ-Patch prg; music: steps &
triads; escher cubes source; tvision.

#A15 (Jun ‘87) C-manship: menu bars;
STLabelmaker; Anim w/Pascal; Printer fonts.
#A16 (Jul/Aug ‘87) C-manship; Windows;
Floyd the Droid on the Run, Raster Sprite
Editor; Desk Manager; Assembly.

#A17 (Sep ‘87) C-manship (window2),

floyddhl.arc, floyddh2.arc, rammer.arc,
transfer.arc, xformerl.arc, xformer2.arc.

#A18 (Apr ‘88) C-manship (window3),

Assembly; GFA Basic (ex. 1-5); Check Disk
program; Convert; Mouse accessory.

#A19 (May ‘88) C-manship (window4);

Assembly; Art Gallery, Crin’s Castle, Strath-

ello.

#A20 (Jun ‘88) C-manship (pictures.prg);
Assembly (cipher2); Basic Draw, Mouse-Ka-
Source, Decimal Destroyer, ST Font Printer.
#A21 (Jul ‘88) Battle Blips, Busey Buddy,
Dialxr, Moonlord ST.

#A22 (Aug ‘88) Altered STeights, GEM Kit,
Merlin’s Box, Microcompositions, MIDIMON,
Sprite Programming, VBI’s from C.

#A23 (Sep ‘88) C-manship (Date pro¬
gram, I), Double column printing, Degas font
loader, Opus spreadsheet.

#A24 (Oct ‘88) C-manship (Date program,
II), Assembly line (multiply.prg), Monkeys &
Balloons, Spectral Sorcery.

#A25 (NOV ‘88) C-manship, ThetaTen,
Number Maze, Ultra-Graph, Laser C Review.
#A26 (DEC ‘88) Assembly Line, ST Date
Planner, Mouse of Fortune, ST Xformer 2.1.
#A27 (JAN ‘89) Assembly Line, Detab Uti¬
lity, Drama-cide, Interface Test, Omnilife,
Transways.

#A28 (FEB ‘89) Desk Switch, Flag Trivia,
GFA Review Benchmark, ST Check, Super
Spool, Test Analyzer.

#A29 (MAR ‘89) Chemcalc, Picture Puzzle,
Sounds-A-Like, ST-Check.

April 1989

Current Notes

Page 75

Current Notes’ Registered Atari Clubs

Members of registered clubs may subscribe to Current Notes at a discount rate ($20/yr or $38/2 yrs). To add your
club to the list, send an initial subscription list of 10% of the members or 6 members whichever is less, to CN
Registered Clubs, 122 N. Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA22170.

ALABAMA

Huntsville AUG, 3911 W. Crestview,
Huntsville 35816 205-534-1815,

ARKANSAS

Little Rock Atari Addicts, 28 John
Hancock Cir, Jacksonville 72076
501-985-2131.

CALIFORNIA

Atari Bay Area Computer Users
Society, PO Box 22212, San Fran¬
cisco 94122 415-753-8483.

Long Beach ACE, PO Box 92812,
Long Beach 90809-2812 213-
423-2758.

San Diego ACE, PO Box 203076, San
Diego 92120 619-581 -2477.

Santa Maria/Lompac ACE, 608 N.
Pierce, Santa Maria 93454 805-
925-9390.

CONNECTICUT

AUG of Greater Hartford, 503-B East
Center St, Manchester 06040.

ST Atari Road Runners, 1160 South
Curtis St, Wallingford 06492.

FLORIDA

Atari Boosters League East, P.O. Box
1172, Winter Park 32790.

ILLINOIS

Central Illinois Atari Users Group,
1920 East Croxton Ave, Blooming¬
ton 61701-5702 309-828-4661.

Lake County ACE, PO Box 8788,
Waukegan 60079 312-623-9567.

ST Information Group, P.O. Box 1242,
Peoria, 61654.

INDIANA

Atari Lovers of Uliana Equaled by
None, 706 Center St., Crown Point,
46307 219-663-5117.

LCC/ST, Karl Werner, Eli Lilly Corp
Cntr, Indianapolis 46285 317-
276-3020.

IOWA

Midwest Atari Group-lowa Chapter,
PO Box 1982, Ames IA 50010 515-
232-1252.

KANSAS

Ft. Leavenworth Atari Group, PO Box
3233, Ft Leavenworth 66027 913-
651-5631.

Lawrence Atari Computer Club, PO
Box 1415, Lawrence, 66044913-
842-5961.

Wichita ACE, 1722 N. Murray, Wichita
67212316-722-1078.

KENTUCKY

Atari Exchange of Louisville, PO Box
34183, Louisville 40232.

MARYLAND

Meade Atari ST, Bob Johnson, 1616B
Forrest Ave, Ft. Meade 20755

Nameless AUG, 3475 Manassas Ct,
Davidsonville 21035 301 -798-0566.

MASSACHUSETTS

Acton-Boxborough Atari Computer
Users Society, PO Box 1523, West-
ford 01886 617-937-8046.

MICHIGAN

Michigan Atari General Information
Conference, 281111mperial Dr, Box
M, Warren 48093-4281 313-978-
8432.

MINNESOTA

SPACE/MAST, 3264 Welcome Ave.,
N„ Crystal. 537-5442.

MISSOURI

ACE St Louis, PO Box 6783, St. Louis,
MO 63144.

Warrensburg/Whiteman Atari Com¬
puter Owners, PO Box 199, War-
rensburg 64093 816-747-2543.

NEW JERSEY

Jersey Atari Computer Group, 8
Crescent Rd, Pine Brook 07058.

NEW YORK

Atari Computer Owners of Rochester
NY, PO Box 23676, Rochester 14692
716-354-5513.

Rockland Atari Computer Users
Group, 29 Riverglen Dr., Thiells, NY
10984914-429-5283.

NORTH. CAROLINA

Blue Ridge Atari Computer Enthu¬
siasts, BillTraughber, 106 Alpine
Way, Asheville, NC 28805.

Charlotte AUG, PO Box 240313,
Charlotte 28224 704-366-4320.

PeidmontTriad AUG, P.O. Box 1073,
Greensboro, 27402.

Triangle Computer Club, Rt. 3, Box
760, Hillsborough 27278 919-
942-2764.

OHIO

Cleveland ACE, PO Box 93034,
Cleveland 44101-5034.

M iami Valley ACE, 1118 Demplile
Ave, Dayton, OH 45410 254-7259.

PENNSYLVANIA

Allentown Bethlehem Easton’s ACE,
PO Box 2830, Lehigh Valley 18001
BBS 215-759-2683.

North East Atari Team Users Group,
P.O. Box 18150, Philadelphia
19116-0150.

Spectrum Atari Group of Erie, PO Box
10562, Erie 16514 814-833-4073.

Southcentral PA ACE, PO Box 11446,
Harrisburg 17108-1446 717-761-
3755.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Rushmore ACE, Gregg Anderson,
3512 Lawrence Dr., Rapid City, SD
57701 605-348-6331.

TENNESSEE

Knoxville AUG, 953 Roderick Rd,
Knoxville 37923 615-693-4542.

TEXAS

DAL-ACE, P.O. Box 851872,
Richardson, Texas 75085-1872.

ST Atari League of San Antonio, 3203
Coral Grove Dr, San Antonio 78247
512-496-5635.

VIRGINIA

Greater Richmond Atari Support
Program, 1420 Yale Ave, Richmond
23224804-233-6155.

Southside Tidewater Atari Tech Users
Society, 5245 Shenstone Circle, VA
Beach 23455 804-464-2100.

WASHINGTON

Seattle Puget Sound ACE, PO Box
110576, Tacoma 98411-0576.

WISCONSIN

Milwaukee Area Atari User’s Group,
3301 S. 93rd St, #108, Milwaukee,
Wl 53227 414-546-0282.

Packerland Atari Computer Users
Society, 2714 South 11th Place,
Sheboygan, 53081 414-457-4519.

Page 76

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

B &(^

omputerVisions

3257 Kifer Road
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 749-1003

A

STORE HOURS
TUE - FRI 10am - 6pm
$AT - 10am - 5pm
CLOSED SUN - MON

SOO/X X ,/X E S OF'IT W R JE

ALL TITLES ON DISK

SOO/ XJE/ X JE S OJP'TWyv RE

ALL TITLES ON CARTRIDGE

ENTERTAINMENT

12 ADAMS ADVENTURES .. 14.95

ALIANTS ... 2 6.95

ALT. REALITY CITY. 2 6.95

ALT. REALITY DUNGEON. 26.95

BEYOND CASTLE WOLF_14.95

BISMARK. 26.95

BOP & WRESTLE (64K)... 26.95

BORDINO:1812 . 26.95

BOULDERDASH CONSTR.SET 17.95

BRUCE LEE . 17.95

CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN.... 14.95

DALLAS QUEST . 7.95

D-BUG . 7.95

F-15 STRIKE EAGLE _ 31.50

FIGHT NIGHT . 17.95

GAUNTLET (64K) . 31.50

DEEPER DUNGEONS. 22.50

GUNSLINGER. 26.95

HARD HAT MAC . 7.95

JAWBREAKER. 9.95

KARATEKA. 13.50

KNICKERBOCKERS . 13.50

KORONIS RIFT . 13.50

LAST V-8 . 8.95

LEADERBOARD . 13.50

MAIL ORDER MONSTERS .. 13.50
MICROLEAGUE BASEBALL.. 35.95
MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE... 14.95

MOUSEQUEST. 17.95

MOON SHUTTLE . 7.95

NINJA. 8.95

OIL'S WELL. 9.95

O'RILEY'S MINE . 9.95

PIRATES OF BARB. COAST 22.50

PREPPIE I & II . 9.95

RESCUE ON FRACTALAS... 13.50

SILENT SERVICE . 31.50

SPEEDKING . 8.95

SPIDERMAN . 7.95

SPITFIRE 40 . 31.50

STARFLEET I . 44.95

SPY VS. SPY III . 17.95

STOCKMARKET . 22.50

STRIP POKER. 26.95

SUMMER GAMES . 17.95

TAX DODGE .. . . . 9.95

THE HULK. 7.95

TOMAHAWK (64K) . 2 6.95

TOP GUNNER. 17.95

TOUCHDOWN FOOTBALL ... 13.50

TRAILBLAZER. 2 6.95

UNIVERSE . 44.95

ZAXXON . 13.50

PROGRAMMING

ACTION! . 71.95

ACTION! TOOLKIT . 26.95

BASIC XL. 53.95

BASIC XL TOOLKIT . 26.95

BASIC XE . 71.95

DISK I/O. 26.95

DRAPER PASCAL . 44.95

KYAN PASCAL .. 62.95

LIGHTSPEED C . 35.95

LOGO. 2 9.95

MAC/65 . 71.95

MAC/65 TOOLKIT . 26.95

MACRO ASSEMBLER . 22.50

PILOT . 19.95

SPARTA DOS X . 71.95

TOP DOS 1.5 PLUS . 35.95

PRODUCTIVITY

ANIMATION STATION _ 89.95

ATARIWRITER+.3 9.95

ATARI BOOKKEEPER . 24.95

ATARI MUSIC II . 14.95

AWARDWARE (1050) . 13.50

BANK STREET WRITER_ 14.95

BLAZING PADDLES . 31.50

CELEBRITY COOKBOOK ... 26.95
COMPUTE YOUR ROOTS ... 35.95

DATAMANAGER. 17.95

FAMILY FINANCE . 6.95

GUITAR WIZARD . 26.95

HOME ACCOUNTANT . 19.95

HOME FILING MANAGER. . 6.95

HOMEPAK. 24.95

INVENTORY MASTER . 80.95

LETTER WIZARD . 29.95

MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SET 13.50
NEWSROOM (1050 - 64K). 13.50

NEWS STATION . 2 6.95

NEWS STA. COMPANION. . 26.95

PAGE DESIGNER _ 26.95

PRINT POWER (1050)_ 13.50

PRINTKIT (1050) . 13.50

PRINTSHOP . 34.95

P.S. COMPANION (64K) . 24.95

P.S.GRAPHICS LIBRARY 1 17.95
P.S.GRAPHICS LIBRARY 2 17.95
P.S.GRAPHICS LIBRARY 3 17.95

PROOF READER . 17.95

PUBLISHING PRO. 35.95

RUBBER STAMP . 26.95

SYNTREND . 14.95

SUPER MAILER . 35.95

THE LOTTO PROGRAM _ 17.95

TIMEWISE . 6.95

TURBOWORD/80 COLUMN

REQUIRES XEP80. 44.95

VIDEO TITLESHOP (64K). 26.95
GRAPHICS COMPANION. 17.95

VIRTUOSO . 2 9.95

VISICALC . 24.95

EDUCATION

ATARI LIGHT MODULE
(REQ.ATARILAB STARTER) 9.95

BUZZWORD .. 3 5.95

GRANDMA'S HOUSE (-10) 9.95

HEY DIDDLE (AGE 3-10). 9.95

MASTER TYPE . 14.95

PLANATARIUM. 22.50

STATES AND CAPITALS .. 9.95

TOUCH TYPING . 9.95

CBS (AGE 3-6) :

ASTROGROVER. 8.95

BIG BIRD SPEC DELIVE 8.95
ERNIE'S MAGIC SHAPE. 8.95
DESIGNWARE:

MATHMAZE (6-11) 35.95

MISSION ALGEBRA (13+)35.95
SPELLICOPTER (6-11). 35.95
TINK TONK (AGE 4-6) :

ABC'S . 8.95

COUNT AND ADD . 8.95

SMART THINKER . 8.95

SPELLING . 8.95

SUBTRACTION. 8.95

THINKING SKILLS _ 8.95

ALL 6 TINK TONKS.. 39.95
UNICORN:

10 LITTLE ROBOTS

(PRE-SCHOOL) . 26.95

FUN BUNCH (6-ADULT) 26.95
RACECAR RITHMETIC

(AGE 6+) 26.95

WEEKLY READER (PRE-SCHOOL) :
STICKY BEAR SHAPES . 26.95
STICKY BEAR NUMBERS. 26.95
STICKY BEAR ABC'S .. 26.96
STICKY BEAR OPPOSITE 26.95

ENTERTAINMENT

ALIEN AMBUSH . 9.95

ACE OF ACES .(XL/XE) . 24.95

ARCHON . 19.95

ASTEROIDS . 15.95

ATARI TENNIS . 9.95

BALL BLAZER . .. 19.95

BARNYARD BLASTER _ 24.95*

BATTLEZONE . 19.95

BLUE MAX . 19.95

CAVERNS OF MARS . 14.95

CENTIPEDE . 14.95

CHICKEN . 9.95

CHOPLIFTER. 14.95

CLAIM JUMPER. 9.95

CLOUDBURST . 9.95

CRIME BUSTER(XL/XE) . 24.95*

CROSSBOW . 24.95*

CROSSFIRE . 9.95

DAVIDS MIDNIGHT MAGIC 19.95

DEFENDER. 14.95

DELUXE INVADERS . 7.95

DESERT FALCON . 19.95

DIG DUG . 19.95

DONKEY KONG . 5.00

DONKEY KONG JR. 19.95

EASTERN FRONT (1941). 19.95

E.T. PHONE HOME . 9.95

FIGHT NIGHT . 19.95

FINAL LEGACY . 19.95

FOOD FIGHT (XL/XE)... 19.95

FOOTBALL .. 14.95

FROGGER. 14.95

GALAXIAN . 19.95

GATO. 24.95

GORF (400/800) T . 5.00

GYRUSS . 14.95

HARDBALL . 19.95

INTO THE EAGLES NEST 19.95
JOURNEY TO PLANETS .. 9.95

JOUST . 19.95

JUNGLE HUNT . 19.95

KABOOM! . 14.95

LODE RUNNER. 24.95

MARIO BROS. 19.95

MILLIPEDE . 19.95

MISSILE COMMAND . 5.00

MOON PATROL .. 19.95

MR. COOL . 9.95

MS. PAC MAN . 19.95

NECROMANCER. 19.95

ONE ON ONE (XL/XE)... 19.95

PAC MAN . 5.00

PENGO.. 19.95

POLE POSITION . 19.95

POPEYE . 14.95

Q-BERT .. 14.95

QIX . 14.95

RESCUE ON FRACTALAS . 19.95

RETURN OF THE JEDI .. 14.95

ROBOTRON:2084 . 19.95

SKY WRITER . 14.95

SLIME (400/800). 9.95

SPACE INVADERS . 14.95

STAR RAIDERS . 5.00

STAR RAIDERS II . 19.95

SUPER BREAKOUT. 9.95

TRACK & FIELD . 24.95

TURMOIL . 9.95

WIZARD OF WOR. 5.00

* REQUIRES LIGHT GUN

PRODUCTIVITY

ATARIWRITER . 19.95

MICROFILER . 22.50

EDUCATION

ATARILAB STARTEER SET 29.95

MATH ENCOUNTERS _ 9.95

FISHER PRICE (PRE SCHOOL) :

DANCE FANTASY . 8.95

LINKING LOGIC . 8.95

LOGIC LEVELS . 8.95

MEMORY MANOR . 8.95

SPINNAKER (AGE 3-10) :

ALF IN COLOR CAVES . 9.95

ALPHABET ZOO _,.. 9.95

DELTA DRAWING . 9.95

FACEMAKER. 9.95

KIDS ON KEYS . 9.95

KINDERCOMP . 9.95

(AGE 7 - ADULT):

ADV.CREATOR (400/800).9.95
FRACTION FEVER __ 9.95

THE BASIC TUTOR
Learn to program in BASIC
Requires a 410 OR f)Y) Program Recorder
COMPLETE PACKAGE ONLY $9.95

BOOKS ONLY

DE RE ATARI . 10.00

LOGO . 10.00

ATARIWRITER . 10.00

DOS 2.5 . 12.95

BASIC REFERENCE . 5.00

BOOKKEEPER . 10.00

SZ7EER S EEC ES

RECONDITIONED ATARI MERCHANDISE
30 DAY WARRANTY

800 (48K)
COMPUTER
$79.95

SPACE AGE
JOYSTICK
$5.00

1030 MODEM

WITH EXPRESS!
$24.95

400 (16K)
COMPUTER
$29.95

ATARI

TRACKBALL

$9.95

1010 PROGRAM
RECORDER
$29.95

1020 COLOR
PRINTER/PLOTTER

$19.95

40 COLUMNS WIDE
(NEW IN BOX)

ATARI

BOOKKEEPER
$14.95 - NO BOX

ATARI
NUMERIC
KEYPAD $7.95

DISKETTES

AS LOW AS 20 CENTS

10 FOR $4.00

100 FOR $29.95

1000 FOR $200

MOST ARE UNNOTCHED
WITH OLD SOFTWARE

SHIPPING INFORMATION - Prices do not include shipping and handling. Add $5.00 for small items ($8.00 Min. for Canada). Add $8.00 for disk
drive. Add $2.75 for C.O.D. Calif, res. include 7% sales tax. Mastercard and Visa accepted if your telephone is listed in your local phone directory.
Orders may be pre-paid with money order, cashier check, or personal check. Personal checks are held for three weeks before order is processed.
C.O.D orders are shipped via UPS and must be paid with cash, cashier check or money order. International and APO orders must be pre-paid with
cashier check or money order. $20.00 minimum on all orders. All sales are final - no refunds - prices are subject to change.

Phone orders accepted TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm PST.

We carry a complete line of ATARI products and have a large public domain library.
_Write or call for free catalogue. (408) 749-1003 TUE - FRI 10AM - 6 PM_

PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE - ALL SALES ARE FINAL

LIST OF ADVERTISERS

Classified Ads....78

A&D Software 503-476-0071. 50

ATNetworks 301-948-0256. 27

Cal Com 301-933-3074. 2

CN Magic Library 703-450-4761 20

CN ST Library 703-450-4761 . 74

Creative Comp 800-458-2715... 65

B & C 408-749-1003 . 77

D&P 216-926-3842 . 65

Diskcovery 703-536-5040 . 7

Electronic Clinic 301-656-7983 . 53
European Sftwr 800-888-9273.. 63
Gadgets Small 303-791-6098.... 39
Hi-Tech Adv. 800-882-4310. 50

Index Legalis 515-472-2293 . 53

Johnsware 301-927-1947. 42

Joppa 800-876-6040 . 73

L&Y 703-643-1729. 79

Mars 312-627-7462. 78

Michtron 313-334-5700. 77

Migraph 800-223-3729. 9

Novatari XL-XE Library.71

Patnor 915-598-1048. 29

Proco 401-568-8459. 63

SofTrek 407-657-4611.61

Softshop 800-622-7942. 33

ST Informer 503-476-0071. 61

ST World.57

Synergy 317-356-6946. 42

Templicity 415-655-2355. 59

Toad 301-544-6943. 60

VersaSoft 408-723-9044. 80

Whitman Music 205-792-1727 .. 67

WordPerfect 801-225-5000 . 3

World of Atari 503-673-2259. 13

A R S (3 12) MARS-INC

312 / 627 - 7 A 6 2

erchandising

VISA

1041-B E. St. Charles Rd. Lombard, IL 60148-2059

USED PRODUCTS.

c?- XL/XE CARTS.

$29.95 ea.

Dark Chambers
Into the Eagles Nest
$24.95 ea.

Desert Falcon
Battlezone
Lode Runner
$ 19.95 ea.

Jungle Hunt
Jumpman Jr. ea.

\ 9 - LIGHT GUN & S/W
MALP (Igt. gun) $39.95
$31.95 ea.
Barnyard Blaster
Crime Busters
•Crossbow

7800 CARTS, -sa

Tower Toppler $31.95
Mario Bros. $24.95
Hatrick $24.95

* SERIOUS ST STUFF *

E. Wk. DOS Manager$8.95
Nickelodeon Five 1 9.95
Revolver $37.50
Tax Advant ’88$44.95

(1-of-a-kind) includes
original documentation,
disks -- everything but
original packaging.

GFA Artist $25.00
GFA BASIC Reference
Guide $ 10.00
GFA Object $25.00
GFA Vector $20.00
Universe II $22.00
Slaygon $21.00
Space Cutter 22.00
Starglider $21.00
Super Dir. $ 15.00
Tracker $24.00

a a rriRRS Stars * *

$37.50 Z+/$34.50 ea.

Fernandez Must Die
Death Sword II, Purple
Saturn Day, Speedball,
Middle Earth, Techno
COP , IK+, Death Sword II
ZAK McKraken $33.50

“CALL FOR AVJrtLflBLITY

Classified Ads

Bargain—Bargain. Atari components, 2 years old, rarely used: Atari 1050 2.5 disk
drive, Atari 1027 LQ Printer, Sakata 13” color monitor. All cables & manuals, in original
cartons. Bonus softwear: Atariwriter Plus & Atari proofreader. Package price $250 or best
offer. Call Maggie, 703-860-8464.

FOR SALE or TRADE: I have the following original software titles: Firezone, $15;
Starglider it, $12; Heroes of the Lance, $12; Ikari Warriors, $12, Outrun, $12; Timeworks
Desktop Publisher ST, $45; and Phantasie III, $12. All prices include the cost of mailing. I am
also interested in trading software titles (originals) for any of the above. Call or write Donald
Adamsk, 105 Park Ave, Selinsgrove, PA 17870 (717) 743-7542.

CN Classified Ads are $.01 per character. Send to CN Classified, 122 N. Johnson Rd,
Sterling, VA 22170.

CURRENT NOTES SUBSCRIPTION FORM

Please (START) (RENEW) my subscription to CurrentNotes\ox 1 year ($24)_2 years ($42)_

Please (START) (RENEW) my subscription as a member of a CN Registered Club (see page 76) for

1 year ($20)_2 years($38)_Club Name:_.

-PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY---

NAME:

STREET:

CITY: ST ZIP:

PHONE: ( )

I own an ATARI (circle all that apply): ST Computers: 520ST 1040ST MegaST2 MegaST4

8“bit CompjJters: 400 800 1200XL 8Q0XL J65XE 130XE XEGS J_G ame Systems; 2600__7800_04/89

Current Notes subscription rate is $24 ($42/ 2 years). Foreign subscriptions are $39/year for SURFACE mail. AIR MAIL rates: Canada/Mexico, $42;
Cent. Amer., Caribbean, $51; S. America, Europe, N. Africa, $61; Mid East, Africa, Asia, Australia, $71. Foreign subscriptions payable in US $ drawn on a
US bank. Send check, payable to Current Notes, to CN Subscriptions, 122 N. Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA 22170.

Page 78

Current Notes

Vol. 9, No. 3

Languages

HiSoft Basic

$59.99

HiSoft Basic Professional

$99.99

GFA Basic 3.0

$59.99

DEVPACST

Debugger and Assembler

$69.99

GFA Companion

$39.99

Mark Williams C 3.0

110.00

Fast Basic

$59.99

G+ Plus

$25.99

LaserC

139.99

8-Bit Software

Atartwriter (cart)

$29.99

Atariwriter +

$39.99

Bookkeeping Kit

$29.99

First Word Processor

$24.99

Light Speed C

$34.99

Newsroom

$34.99

Print Shop

$29.99

Leader Board

$27.99

BBS Express

$47.99

Autodual

$34.99

Alter Reality City

$27.99

Alter Reality Dungeon

$27.99

Turboword

80 column word processor $39.99

Diamond OS

-a GEM operating system

for 8-Bit Atari’s

CALL

8-Bit Hardware

13QXE

CALL

65XE

CALL

XF551

CALL

Refurbished 1050 disk drive

W/ 30 Day Warranty

$95.00

1027 Printer

$69.99

1020 Printer

$25.99

Rambo XL 256K Upgrade

$39.99

P.R Connection

$59.99

Printer or Modem cable

$12.99

XEP80

80 column video display

$72.99

and parallel printer port

Printers

Panasonic

KX-P1080

$169.99

KX-P1091

$189.99

KX-P1124

$329.99

Star

NX-1000

$169.99

NX-1000 Color

$239.99

NX-2400 (24 pin)

$329.99

Accessories

6 ft MIDI cable

$ 6.99

6 ft SF314/354 cable

$19.99

Drive Master

$34.99

Monitor Master

$34.99

Mouse Master

$34.99

Mouse Pad (red, green, blue) $ 5.00

VideoKey

$69.99

k

ST Hardware

520 ST with monochrome
with color

1040 ST with monochrome
with color

SUPRA FD10

In Stock

Any Hard Disk

Spectre ST

Magic Sac plus

Magic Sac ROMs

Atari SF314 Double-Sided
RS232C or Centronic cable
ICD Tape Back Up

ICD Tape Back Up w/50Mb
Ham Drive

CALL

CALL

CALL

CALL
$129.99
$ 89.99
$ 19.99
$209.99
$ 9.99

$799.99

1499.99

SPECIALS OF

THE MONTH

512.99

DHP SPACE ST

510.00

mm

T1MEUNK

mm

1 Sri HIK&iy .^0" IH(| ggggg

'"Siam’:

SHiftmdciivibi:

FACTORY AUTHORIZED NETWORK

Productivity

1st Word Plus
Teacher’s Pet
Athena II CAD.
BackUp
Chartpak

Draw Art Professional

First Cadd

Flash

Juggler II

Revolver

Universal Item Selector

Multidesk

Word Writer ST

Desktop Publishing

Business Card Maker $39.99

Fleet Street II $89.99

Font Factory Clip Art $ 15.99

Fonts & Borders $19.99

Fontz! $27.99

Publisher ST $79.99

Publishing Partner $59.99

Scanart library $39.99

Drawing Programs

CyberControl $39.99

CyberPaint $39.99

CyberStudio (CAD 2.0) $59.99

Easy Draw/Turbo Charger $99.99
Easel ST $17.99

Pro Sprite Designer $29.99

Quatum Paint Box $35.99

Spectrum 512 $49.99

Entertainment

Adv Dungeons and Dragons $29.99
Autodual $39.99

Bard’s Tale $39.99

Balance of Power $37.99

Barbarian $29.99

Better Dead than Alien $27.99

Bubble Bobble $29.99

Bubble Ghost $25.99

Carrier Command $39.99

Chrono-Quest $29.99

Dive Bomber $29.99

Dungeon Master $29.99

Dungeon Master Hint Book $ 9.99

Empire $39.99

F-15 Strike Eagle $29.99

Falcon $32.99

Gunship $37.99

Hardball! $29.99

Hunt for Red October

$37.99

Jinxter

$29.99

King’s Quest IV

$35.99

Leatherneck

$29.99

Leasure Suit Larry II

$32.99

MicroLeague Baseball

$39.99

Obliterator

$29.99

Off-Shore Warrior

$29.99

O.I.D.S.

$27.99

Outrun

$29.99

Phantasy 1,11, or IE

$29.99

Police Quest

$35.99

Police Quest II

$35.99

$59.99

Questron II

$39.99

$39.99

Road Runner

$39.99

$69.99

Scrabble

$29.99

$29.99

Shadowgate

$39.99

$39.99

Star Fleet I

$39.99

$49.99

Star Trek

$29.99

$39.99

Stellar Crusade

$39.99

$25.99

Street Fighter

$29.99

$39.99

Terrorpoas

$29.99

$34.99

Test Drive

$29.99

$15.99

TETRIS

$32.99

$25.99

Ultima IV

$39.99

$49.99

U.M.S.

$37.99

Uninvited

$39.99^

(703)494-3444
METRO 643-1729
FAX 703-690-7040
MON.-SAT. 10am - 7 pm
Closed Sunday

L & Y ELECTRONICS INC.

13644C JEFFERSON DAVIS HWY.
WOODBRIDGE, VIRGINIA 22191

PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE
IN STOCK ONLY-SALE ENDS APRIL 30, 1989

ATARI SERVICE

AUTHORIZED SINCE 1982

NO CREDIT CARD SURCHARGE
ACCEPTED MASTER CARD
VISA DISCOVERY

I

dB MAN Y

All the power of dBASE 111+ and more for your Atari

dBMAN V, in a package of three
separate functions: Database Manage¬
ment, Report Printing, and Program
Development, is the only database
management program which has all
the power, flexibility, and capacity
that you’ll ever need!

At the Database Management
level, dBMAN V allows you to
structure, enter, retrieve, and modify
data. At home, dBMAN V can keep
track of your recipes, address book,
video tape library, and more. In the
office, dBMAN V can be programmed
to manage your entire business
including inventory control, payroll,
invoicing, and billing.

At the Report Printing level,

dBMAN V has an integrated,
high-powered, and fully
relational report writer that 2

allows you to create reports in a
flash with absolutely no
programming!

Report layouts are
designed by placing
fields at the desired
locations on the screen.
This can easily be
accomplished with
the built-in cut,
paste, and copy
functions. The
finished
screen-layout
reflects the printed
output. From
simple personal
reports like recipe
cards, mailing list,
and video tape
libraries, to
complex business reports such as
inventory count sheets, packing lists,
employee payroll reports and
customer billing statements are easily
created.

dBASE II, HI, and III+. Novell Netware, IBM PCNET, DOS, Xenix, UNIX , NEC ,
386, Apple Macintosh, Atari MEGA ST, 520, and 1040, and Commodore Amiga, ar

At the Program Development
level, dBMAN V is the only database
manager for the Atari ST that is
compatible with the dBASE III Plus
language. With this awesome
programming power, you can develop
and customize any programs to fill
your home and business needs. For
your home, create a check book
program, with complete bank
statement balancing to manage your

\ev^ en ^^c. vet sv0<

swW vc £V nrc* 5 ' v

dBMAN V’s features:

personal finances. For your o
customize a complete account
system to fit your business ne<

Also available for dBMAN
high performance Greased Lig
compiler. This compiler fully
supports macros, and executes
dBASE programs up to 16 time
faster than dBASE III Plus.

dBMAN is also available on
Novell Netware, IBM PCNET,
PC DOS, SCO Xenix, UNIX on
NCR Tower, NEC ASTRA XL,
Motorola 8000, Altos, Microport
286 and 386, Apple
Macintosh, and
Commodore Amiga.

Report Writer features: Specifications:

/

dBASE II and dBASE III

/ 9 group levels

V Field types: Character

Plus compatibility

/ Up to 255 columns and 255

Numeric, Date, Lop : ai,

/

Easy-to-use, pull-down

lines per page

Memo

menu interface to create,

/ Page headers, page footers,

/ Maximum characters per

add, edit, and report

group headers, group

field: 254

database information

footers, titles, summaries,

/ Maximum number of

/

320 programmable

and body lines

records per database: 2

commands and functions

/ Print labels up to 99 across

billion

/

Password protection and

/ Conditional printing of any

/ Maximum number of index

data security at field level

items

files: no limit

/

Easily transport your

/ Compute running sums,

/ Maximum record size: 4000

dBASE III data files and

counts, averages, minimums

bytes

programs between Atari ST

and maximums

/ Numeric precision: 17 digits

/

and PC’s

Extensive data validation

/ Relate and report frorn up to

9 database files with lookup

System Requirements:

including range checking

(one to one) and scan (one

/ Atari 520, 1040, or MEGA

/

Single command menus:

to many) relations. And

ST with one floppy drive

vertical, horizontal,

more...

and 480K free RAM.

scrollable and pull down

........ , . . ......

/

menus

User defined pop-up

.. ..

/

windows

Create a GEM pull down

= =■ VersaSoft Corporation

menu, mouse menu and file

4340 Almaden Expressway,Suite 250

selector.

gg

San Jose, CA95118

/

Run GEM application from
dBMAN

VERSASOFT

Phone: 408-723-9044
Telex: 650-2635806

/

Program debugger/editor.

And more...

Fax: 408-723-9046

\STRA XL, Motorola 8000, Altos, Microport 286 and
: registered trademarks of their respective owners.